Spring 2000--#11
California State University,
Bakersfield, CA93311
Phone:(661)
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 221 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.
Catwings
What big news
this is!After years of making do
with foster care for rescued campus cats, we now have a new home at Catwings.This
2.5 acre property, named for Ursula LeGuin's series of books about kittens
born with wings, is just what we needed.During
December, a mother-in-law apartment, covered porch, and carport were remodeled
for the cats--about 1500 square feet in all.Kitchen
cupboards had doors removed to create kitty bunks.Shower
liner panels were put on the walls to facilitate cleaning, and outlets
were catproofed to prevent electrical accidents.Heating
mats designed for use with large farm animals were installed--the cats
loved these during the cold weather.And
a giant jungle gym and rafter perches were installed in the ex-carport
(now catport) by Ed Plake and Martha Stiles.The
cats moved in in January.(That's
quite an oversimplification of a two-week process--remember that a lot
of these cats can't be handled!I
am now an expert cat-netter.) Almost
all of the cats decided immediately that they enjoy the new place--some
are still a bit intimidated.Cats
needing special medical attention have their own room inside the main house
(an attached small outdoor enclosure is planned for them), and the barn
holds tons of donated cat litter.
So far, the cats
have been visited by the Cat People's Board of Directors and by the Psychology
Department faculty.We're planning
a big open house in the Fall.Our
next construction project will be an expanded outdoor area with real grass!
Catwings already
has its own web site, constructed by Elaine Gregory for a class assignment.The
address is http://www.bakersfield.org/catwings/index.html. Visit
us!
CATS
ON CAMPUS
Northern Campus
Cats** Gleam in the Dark ** It's
still Phantom and Tucker at this feeding station.They're
usually waiting for the food delivery, their eyes glowing in the darkness.Patches
has visited here a few times, as has the seldom-seen tabby with one crumpled
ear.
Western Campus
Cats** Keeping On** Tortie
Girl and the others at the western feeding station continue to bask in
the sun and greet their human friends.
Southern Campus
Cats** New Nickname ** Blossom
has decided that the way to hurry up the food delivery is to butt me with
her head, and one of these days she's going to knock me over.Her
new nickname is "Miss Buttly".Yeller
grows increasingly affectionate.
Eastern Campus
Cats** Tentative Touching ** After
many years, Black Kitten and Silva are finally letting me touch them--the
tip of one finger touching their noses, that is.It's
the usual feral no touching relationship with White Kitty.Chatty
continues to talk up a storm.
RewardCarol
Raupp is offering a $1000 reward for information leading to the successful
arrest and prosecution of any person(s) abandoning cats on campus.This
cruel crime must stop!Helpful information
includes time, date, exact location, description of person and vehicle,
license number, and description of the cat(s).
CATS
WAITING FOR HOMES
Pictures
of some of these cats can be seen on our bulletin board across from DDH
D113.Cats have their vaccinations
and are spayed.Contact Carol for
details.
Mabel,
2 years old, female, short-hair gray and white tuxedo cat whose gray fur
shimmers like pewter--she is smart and playful and would like a home with
someone who can appreciate her cat jokes
LooLoo,
2 years old, female, short-hair black--she loves kittens, being petted,
and yummy treats--her purple collar sets off the tiny white spot on her
chest
Kew,
15 months, female, short-hair orange tabby--though she has the young heart
of a kitten, Kew is very serene and ever so grateful for attention--her
tail is always in the "Hi, how are you?" greeting position
Mandy
,12 months, female, medium-hair pastel calico--she has a tiny "mew" but
is quite a scamp, and likes to wrestle, her paws versus my hands
RESCUE
and RELOCATION LOG
Keep your fingers
crossed--there have been no kittens born here this year and no abandoned
cats so far that we know of.
ADOPTIONS--LUCKY
KITTIES!
We need adopters!No
cats have been adopted this year.
Update on an adoption--just
as the last issue went to press, we found out about a cat rescued on campus
who went straight to an adopter but we didn't have all the facts.Kiki,
a female mostly orange tabby with some tortie flavoring, was rescued last
October and adopted instantaneously by Theresa Robertson (Science Stockroom),
who reports that Kiki's quite possessive of her cat toys.
Obituaries:More
Old-timers
Every cat has
a story.Four former campus cats
with stories have died since last Fall.Sage,
a beautiful pastel tortie (gray and peach) died in early December 1999
of acute respiratory illness.She
had been abandoned at CSUB, pregnant or with her tiny kittens, many years
ago.Sage moved her kittens back
and forth between the Health Center and the Children's Center several times
before she could be found reliably, and by that time, with the rigors of
caring for her kittens, she was becoming fiercely protective.Once
rescued, she never permitted handling, but two of her kittens, Mojave and
Fergus, found adoptive homes (the others live at Catwings).On
December 22, 1999, Phil the Whiner was found dead of unknown causes.He
was one of a kind.His story began
when Phil Whitney carried the little black and white kitten into one of
my classes, saying "This kitten just walked up to me over by the cafeteria."Phil
(the kitten) then spent the remainder of the class exploring students'
desks.Phil the Whiner (the cat)
got his nickname because I thought it was so cute when he mewed while a
small kitten that I trained him to do it on cue--I would say his name and
he would "whine". (No, Phil the person does not do this.)Another
cat with an amazing story, Copycat (Mr. Boo, Mr. Fuzzymuzzle), died
of kidney failure February 5, 2000.Many
years ago I received a call from staff at Modular Building 3--"There's
a cat in our Xerox machine."Sure
enough, a terrified cat was huddled in the paper storage bin.What
else could he be named but Copycat?He
had had a tough life as a young tomcat--one eye had a healed wound and
eventually developed cataracts, and he always walked with a proud, stiff-shouldered
tomcat swagger.For his first year
in foster care he had to have his own room because he would simply attack
other cats.During an especially
crowded time I had to put a cage of young kittens in his room, though--and
he loved them!They socialized him
and he finally joined the other cats.After
a long battle with stomatitis, Boojtu Monkeytail died on March 31.She
was the last survivor of the first litter of kittens I rescued on campus,
a granddaughter of Momcat.After
spending a frustrating daily session in the bushes every day for weeks
trying to make friends with these kittens and catch them, I finally grabbed
Boojtu--but decided to rely on traps for almost all the other cats since.Boojtu
liked to carry her amazingly long skinny tail curled over her back in the
monkey position.
You
Can Help Feral Cats in your Neighborhood
If you feed a
colony of feral (wild) cats or have cats in your neighborhood that you
consider to be wild, you'll be glad to know that several local veterinarians
are participating in a statewide program to provide FREE spaying and neutering
for FERAL cats.Maddie's Fund has
made an initial $1 million grant, with more pending.Call
your vet to find out about participating--more vets are still being added.To
qualify, a cat must not accept handling by humans, must be trapped and
delivered in the trap to the vets, must have one ear tipped by the vet
to mark the cat clearly as spayed or neutered, and must be returned to
his/her original habitat after surgery.(If
you decide to have testing, vaccinating, or other medical treatment done,
you would pay for this yourself.)This
program is not intended for cats with homes, but if you have abandoned
and feral cats in your neighborhood, this is your chance to do something
really important--help these cats who have no one--just for the cost of
renting a trap.
Spay/Neuter
Coupons Available
Free discount
coupons worth $10 toward spaying and neutering cats and dogs are available.Kern
County Animal Control funds the program.You
can come by DDH D113 to pick up coupons for cats, or call 664-2370.Leave
your phone number, full name (the name that will be used on the account
at the veterinarian’s), full mailing address including zip code, your cat’s
name, cat’s sex, and cat’s approximate age and a coupon will be left at
DDH D113 within 24 hours for you to pick up.Off-campus
callers may have coupons mailed, upon request.Each
household may get up to three coupons, one per cat (leave information about
each cat for whom a coupon is needed).Coupons
are not transferable.For dog coupons,
contact Kern Humane Society.
If you cannot
afford to spay or neuter your cat even with the discount, and believe you
may income qualify, contact the Cat People for an application for Spay
Today (327-4706) which covers all costs for those eligible.Do
it now--processing applications takes several weeks, as funds become available.If
you adopted a kitten last year, it’s past time to spay or neuter.And
if your cat has had kittens, be sure to spay her before Round 2.
Thanks
for Helping
Phil Whitney and
Linda White made especially generous cash donations that have been used
to keep the cats on campus fed and to install security doors for the cats'
enclosure at Catwings.
Phil Whitney also
spent a day at the cats' previous home helping to clean up the yard as
part of our move, and Brenda and Art Bynum, Jan Underwood and Ruth, and
Jorge Yviricu moved truckloads of stuff.
Thanks for books
for our next book sale from Jackie Kegley and Lori Lowrimore (and thanks
for the cat toy for Catwings cats).
Jackie Kegley,
Katy Kessler, Phil Whitney, and Jeff Spencer have been keeping the east-side
cats on campus fed.
As always, Southwest
Vets have regularly assisted the campus cats and those at Catwings.
The Golden Cat
company has donated a barnful of cat litter (probably enough for the entire
year!) to the local Colony Assistance Program, and they’ve passed a whole
lot of it on to cats at Catwings--thanks to Golden Cat, CAP, Smurfit Recycling
(transport), and Brenda Bynum (organizing).
On a similarly
helpful note, Karen Hartlep donated two litter boxes to Catwings.
An anonymous donor
who has so far eluded discovery has left several deliveries of cat food
for the cats on campus across the past several months.Tina
Giblin, Gary Zmitrewicz, and Steve and Penelope Suter have also donated
food.This is always much appreciated
by the hungry kitties.
Thanks to Armanda
Ghilarducci and Loraine Navarro for selling so much of the See's candy
for our fundraiser.
A big thanks to
Ed Plake, who spent 3 mornings out at Catwings putting in a cat door, building
the cats' jungle gym and workout center, and getting the farm equipment
running.The cats love their jungle
gym!
Martha Stiles
visited from Davis and started the flyscreen project on the cat enclosure
at Catwings. She also donated
some medicines for the cats.
The cats do flips
over all this generosity!
Candy
for Sale
We still have
some See's chocolate bars for sale (milk chocolate with almonds or with
toffee bits).Why not spend the
summer in a hammock reading trashy novels and munching a box of bars?Contact
-2370 if you can help us finish this fundraiser.
DONATIONS
NEEDED--
If
you haven’t contributed yet this year, now’s the time.
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.
Campus
Cats’ wish list also includes the following-- cat food contributors, substitute
feeders for cats on campus, and of course, adopters.Former
Campus Cats at Catwings could use cat food, Q-tips (for cleaning ears),
food or water dishes that hold 1 quart or more, and used towels or blankets
for bedding.
******************************************************************************************
DONATION FORM--Return to C. Raupp,
Psychology, DDH D113
Name, campus
phone & campus 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.