The Deaf White Cat that came in from the Cold!

                                                                        Whitie

 I have had so many cats that have wandered in to get a free meal and in many cases help, I can't remember them all.!  One such cat is "Whitie", he is mostly white and is mostly deaf.  He wandered in with blood on him and was starving. Nobody claimed the poor fellow and all he wanted was food and a place to sleep!  It was the dead of winter this past year and I found he would hide on the back porch under the chair,,,it was freezing out there.  

This summer he has turned into a good looking white cat but only wants to eat and be in the house, which is driving my house cats crazy.  What I need is  to find a home for him.  He is fixed now and someone would have a great, friendly, and very gentle cat.  Humorously, Whitie is the opposite of my blind black cat Willie... so I wondered if maybe we should start a "disabled cat ranch" down here!

Please if you can find a home for White you will have no trouble... only a food bill and I can have a happy home again in my kitchen!  The thing that worries me the most is the upcoming winter weather as once again the porch will be freezing cold and an electric heater will be unaffordable with this years  electric rates.

It reminds me of  "The Cat who came to Christmas" by Cleveland Amory.  I am the "Curmudgeon" that seems to always gets stuck feeling sorry for them, mumbles under my breath, and then finds love from them...  Animals unlike people who want everything...new cars, fancy phones, overpriced houses... only want a home and food...and I might add "...they show much love back.

This is the reason we founded our "not for profit.  4 Community Cats Inc".  This is our way of helping to control the animal population in our little area and to put a website out with information on vets, neutering and spaying, and health tips..Please help us help the community and cats like White!

4CommunityCats.Inc.   We have a go Fund Me Page or you can mail check to 4 Community Cats Inc in care of 5823 Brooklyn Street, Eaton, NY.   https://gofund.me/7356f605 

We are a NYS and Federal Not for Profit Charity!

Cats, Cats. Cats!

This has been another year of trying to find homes for strays that have shown up in the winter with their young in our area.  I know the only way to stop this is to educate the pubic on getting their animals neutered or spayed, but How!

Most all of these cats are just drop offs that people can't take care of...many times because they moved and other times because they haven't the money to take care of them after getting them.

Getting a cat "fixed" costs a fortune and more than most poor families can pay.  Another hard point to make is these cats are not feral and struggle to survive with their young. These cats who just have kittens and stay close to where they can find food.  Feral cats or barn cats also need to be fixed or one years population would multiply expeditiously...programs or vets that will fix or take strays or feral cats is hard to find.

There is a difference between a community cat that stays in one area and is friendly with the area cats and a true feral cat that can support himself.  Community cats roam from place to place for food and    or for shelter.   What is really needed is a way to educate the public and the "powers that be" on the importance of programs to address these issues.

Families who take in a kitten for their kids need to understand the cost of veterinary care.  Even a local farm vet has to charge for his services and medicines...a Animal Hospital of any area charges in excess of $300 plus for such a service.

Our little community group has formed a not for profit to try and raise not only awareness of the problems in rural and poor areas but also raise funds to continue our quest to educate the public and connect them with programs and to raise funds. You can find our Facebook Page at 4 Community Cats and Rascals Find Home for Strays!   The two pictures below show our latest cats...Blackie, Jack and Dipper.

You can contact me at backstreetmary@yahoo.orcom.

A special history, a Stray, and Winston Churchill's love of Cats

Here the story of home and a famous cat called Jock!

Winston  Churchill’s mother was Jennie Jerome, a beautiful American who actually has great ties to CNY.  The Jerome Family farms were in CNY and the land that my family built its house on was part of the Jerome Farm…home of Jennie’s grandmother.  

Thoughts of the Jerome farm led me to ponder the fact that for Christmas one year I gave my brother the gold watch dad had given me...he had found the old gold watch in the family garden as a young man...a garden that would later become the family compound of homes.  Repaired and running, I thought it was a great family history piece and a great present.

Picture I took on a trip to London
of Churchill's statue with
Big Ben in Background

Churchill was supposed to come to speak at a family reunion in Syracuse once, but had to turn back because of the presence of U Boats...he did send a telegram to the family group assembled…a piece of history I learned from the Wood-Eaton sisters who visited me years back in Eaton.  They were relatives and were to be at the reunion and remembered the trip.   They had come to Eaton to visit their great grandfather Allen Nelson Wood’s house, the house I live in.  Isn’t it strange how life is full of so much serendipity?

Mr. Wood was named Allen Nelson Wood...Nelson for Lord Nelson a hero his family honored with the name for many generations…and then suddenly my grey cat Rascal jumped in my lap…hint …one o f Winston Churchill’s most famous cat’s  (grey) was named Nelson to honor Lord Nelson.

Churchill was a cat lover, actually an animal lover.  Winston and his wife Clementine signed their love letters to each other with little drawn pictures…he a dog (Pug) she his cat...and their daughter the PK or puppy-kitten.

His cat stories are famous and many can still picture him speaking with a drink in one hand and the grey cat next to him. One story I love is... after one of his famous speeches (he had a lisp as well as drank) a woman MP in Parliament said, “Sir, you are drunk!”  His replay was “Madame that may be true, but in the morning I shall be sober whereas you will still be ugly!”

His favorite cat in later life cat was a ginger-marmalade colored cat he called  “Jock”, named after Sir John Coville his secretary who gave it to him.  Churchill loved the color and the cat so much that after giving his home Chartwell to the National Trust… he stated in his will that it should always have a ginger colored cat in residence…and to this day it does…and always named appropriately “Jock”.

Great piece of history...please help find this new stray cat a home or its owner!