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This is pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
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Hello, feline friends, Welcome to Catitude. I'm your show host
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Michelle Byrne, and today we have a guest that's going
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to talk about the topic near and dear to my
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heart and you longtime listeners know what that is. Saving
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our cats are kitties, volunteering, fostering, what you can do,
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why you should do it, and also how she helps
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start this amazing organization. So stay tuned, we'll be right back.
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Talk to the pa.
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Hi.
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This is Amy Suret. Hi. I'm Jane Lynch.
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This is Mandy Bourne.
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There, I'm Kate Waller. There's Katherine Tigle.
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There's only one station that gives you the scoop on
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wagging tongues and tails and who's walking who in rent
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in tencil Down pet Life Radio the tail Wagger.
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Let's Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot Com.
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Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Debra Feline Begaldi.
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She is a volunteer with Helen Sanders cat Pause based
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in southern California. You also helped start this organization. Welcome Debra.
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Oh, thank you so very much for having me.
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I'm very excited to have you know, you know, we
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chatted a bit before the show, and I'm you know,
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lived in LA for many years. Now I'm in an
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even warmer climate and it has according to one late
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night host that I adore the esteemed I guess, uh
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terminology of the crazy state. So I live in South Florida. Well,
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right right, I guess because there's always something crazy going
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on here. I don't know, it's not all political. There's
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just a lot of crazy. You never, like today, we
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have a fire in the Everglades. It poured like crazy
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last week, but the fire is still uncontained. I don't
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know how that happens during rainy season, but here we go.
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I'm so sorry.
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Yeah, why do we bring that up? Because warm climates
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tend to have a lot of stray kitties, not own
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and stray cats not only during certain seasonality but all
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year long, because you know, it's easier for them to procreate.
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You know, they're in the outdoors and all of that.
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Let's talk before we get started about kitten seasons and everything.
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Can you share with us tell us about the Helen
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Sanders Cat Pause Organization of course.
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Thank you. It was started officially as a nonprofit you know,
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organized in Bible one c. Three and all that in
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early twenty ten by the roots of the organization go
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deeper than that to a lady named predictably Ellen Sanders,
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who was active in TNR, which is you know, trapped
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New to Return starting back in like the seventies eighties,
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before people even knew what Tea and all her meant
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or dropped New to Return. She was trapping the stray
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feral as they would call at the time, cats hit
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the jetty in the rocks that jut out into the ocean. Here,
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it was just inundated with just straying, free rowing cats,
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and she would trap them. You mainly trap them, get
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them altered, get them vaccinated, and put them back into
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their rocks habitat and feed them every night. She would
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take food to them and manage that colony. She taught
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other people how to do that. When she passed away
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in two thousand and five, some friends put together a
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few underbox just to the cats that were still alive
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at the time for passing. And then eventually a few
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years later we decided to make it official and organize
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and start a rescue in her name, honor and legacy.
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One thing that the Helen Sanders Cat Pause Organization. Does
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that's a little different than some other places. They have
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a DIY kitten care program. Can you share that with us?
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Yeah, So about ten years ago we were working with
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We actually concentrate, we focus mostly on public shelters and
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try to take out the cats and kittens that are
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most at risk of you know, not making it out alive.
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So at the time, one of the shelters that we
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were working with, they were unfortunately just a about one
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thousand kittens year. We're not making it up, and typically
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kittens under four or five weeks old that weren't yet
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eating on their own because they require so much care,
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you know, twenty four hours a day, you know, every
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few hours they have to be fed, right, Shelters are
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not typically staffed twenty four hours, so they were not
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making it out. So what we put together was this
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DIY kitten care kits so that when people came in,
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you know, just thinking oh it's a shelter, I'll bring
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kittens there, and the shelter would say, you know, we
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have no one to take care of these kittens. They're
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not going to make it. They would be offered a
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kit of supplies to take the kitten and the supplies
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and say, here, you take the kitten, here's some supplies,
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and take care of the kitten. Will you take the kitten?
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Take care of the kitten or kittens for you know,
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a couple of weeks least until they're eating on their own.
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Then you can bring them back even and then the
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shelter can handle them better. So it was a way
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to keep the kittens out of the shelter and engage
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the community, just members of the public, to just be rescuers,
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you know, and give them the tools, the information, the formula,
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the bottles, the heating have whatever they needed to give
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those kittens a chance to live that they would not
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have if they entered the shelter system.
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I love that. Now we're going to talk a little
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bit further about kittens because we talked about well right now,
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we're recording the show in June, almost July, so kitten
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season typically runs April through October, and people here kitten season,
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kitten season. So my longtime listeners are probably like, yeah,
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I know what that means, but a lot of people
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do not. So can you explain to our listening audience
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what exactly is kitten season? Why it's important and what
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to look out for.
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Absolutely, thank you. Yeah, kitten season is just way not
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nearly as cute as it sounds. Right, It's that time
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of year, and you mentioned the April to October time frame,
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which is probably the heaviest seasons. And what that means
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is all these kittens and unwanted litters being born that
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overwhelmed shelters, overwhelmed rescues. The kittens are often born frankly sick.
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There's a lot of inbreeding, there's you know, birth defects,
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there's a lot of heartbreak involved in it. In a
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temperate climate like we're in in southern California, it's almost
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really year round. It can have a little bit during
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like you know some of the rainy months and chili
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rainy months that passed, or winter, you know, between November
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and February, but it never really stops. I mean we've
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seen pregnant cats coming in in January, late January and February.
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So these kittens are born, they're born outside. People find them,
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they don't know what to do. They take them to
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the shelter. As I mentioned a moment ago, the shelter
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is often ill equipped to be able to handle, especially
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if there's no mom or if in kittens that need
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to be fed every few hours, and it's just a
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lot of tragedy and tragic outcomes and a lot of
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them don't make it. Unfortunately.
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It's very sad. I mean my cats, so Charlotte and
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Molly are sisters from different misters and different litters. And
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Molly was actually born on my doorstep in September almost
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ten years ago, and it was during which in South
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Florida June through November we have hurricane season. So not
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only do you have to watch out for the kittens
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and see where kat mama has her babies, but you
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also have to be careful where she might hide them.
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In one case, because it was raining so bad, she
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actually hid them up and my spouse's car up near
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the engine. So we always talk about it. You know,
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in cooler months to knock on the car, but you
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have to make sure to be just as tenacious about
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doing so. In the warmer months, they hide under the car,
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They might go inside the car if it's raining trential
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rains or something. So you have to check all over
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the place for these for the kittens, and yeah, it does.
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It sounds pretty ooh, kitten season. But what cats know
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is that means where are we putting all the kittens?
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And then you have the problem too of people adopting
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and not realizing that cute little kittens become cats, which
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are also very cute, but they become cats and they've
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become bigger. So something to think about. One thing I
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want to talk to you about, because we haven't talked
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too much about this on Catitude, Let's talk about fostering,
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because I think a lot of people misunderstand fostering as
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an option and also a lot of people think, well,
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I'm going to become attached. How could I ever give
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that cat up?
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You know.
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And while we're talking about it to all my listeners,
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remember we're all a little part in our roles to
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help cats. Sometimes it's talking about things, sometimes it's fostering,
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sometimes it's just communicating on social media. Whatever your little
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part is, it's all important in saving them and the
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goal to drastically cut down on euthanizing and unfortunate deaths
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because there's accidents too with you know, cars and so forth.
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So tell us about fostering, Deborah.
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Okay, happy to that that fostering is that is the
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backbone of our little organization. We are foster based, and
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what that means is we don't have a shelter, you know,
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facility per se or we you know, stick cat. We
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have foster care providers who are caring for cats in
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their their own homes. So what fostering provides to a cat,
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and again we focus on taking them out of shelters,
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but other organizations, you know, take in ones from the street,
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you know, as it were. But fostering provides to a
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cat the gift of time, you know, time that they
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might not get in a shelter, of care, of love,
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of medical intervention, which is often necessary. A typical scenario
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for us, for example, would be that we get a
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an urgent call. This happens like all day, you know,
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throughout all day every day from shelters. You know, we
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just got in a litter of two week old kittens.
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You know, at the end of the day, if they're
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not taken out, we're going to use an atom, right,
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So we take what we can. If we take those kittens,
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we get them into foster care. So fostering directly saves
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lives by giving cats a chance, giving them that time
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that they might not otherwise get.
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Let me ask you about fostering kittens. You have a DIY,
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so you get calls from shelters. Then you have like
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groups of people that volunteer and do some of them
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just know how to care for kittens? Do you give
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them a little do they have a class? How do
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they know.
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Well a couple of day. I mean if we get
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a call about like the one week old, two week old,
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even up to three week old, I mean that that's
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a really vulnerable age and there's not much room for error.
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So we fortunately do have some experienced fosters who will
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immediately take those in and then we also try to
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groom some of our other foster care providers that maybe
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are familiar with taking kittens that are a little bit older,
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you know, in less time intensive ones that draps are
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eating on their own, but we try to mentor them
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into showing them how to bottle feed, what to look for,
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how to keep those very you know, small, fragile, frail
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kittens and that vulnerable age alive. So and I also
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have been involved in in doing classes even for a
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local shelter for their their own staff and their foster
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care providers. Because you know, one thing I say in
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those classes is no human was born knowing how to
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take care of a newborn kid, right, We all had
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to learn somewhere and somehow. The good news is there's
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a lot more resources online now than there were something
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years ago. Oh yeah, well I first started fostering. I
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mean you can literally just do an interest in that
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search how do I care for an orphan kitten? I
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found a kitten? What do I do? You can put
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that into your into your browser and you will get
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pages and videos about everything you know from how you
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know how to feed, what to feed, when to feed.
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So that's the good news. There's just a lot more
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information out there than they used to be.
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Which is a good thing for so many reasons. We're
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going to take up short break. We'll be right back, Molly.
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Here's your dinner.
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Since that's not your food.
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Don't let that happen to your precious cat. Elevates your
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cat's eating experience with the cat tree tray. The cat
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tree tray keeps your cat's food off the floor and
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conveniently located on the cat tree. It's the perfect way
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to eat. It's a beautiful wrought iron tray that easily
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attaches to your cat tree and keeps do and other
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gritters out of your cat's dish. A musk from Multi
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Pet Households. There's a six inch trade for large bowls
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and a four inch tray for smaller bulls. Per just
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your cat tree trade today, Go right now to cattreetrade
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dot com. That's cattreetrade dot com. C A T t
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R E E t R A y dot com.
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Let's talk past it.
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Let's radio headline Radio.
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Petlight radio dot com.
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Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Debra. She is a
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volunteer at Helen Sanders Cat Pause. So we're talking about fosters. So, Deborah,
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what do you think are some misconceptions people have when
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they think about fostering. And you foster kittens, but you
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also foster cats.
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Correct, Yeah, we actually have foster needs for everything from
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newborn kittens to cats that have terminal medical diagnoses. To
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be honest, we've taken in you know, what we call
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hospice and phosphus hospice fostering, so it kind of runs
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the gamut. But I think one of the objections or
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concerns I hear most often from people is that all
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I couldn't foster I couldn't give them up, yes, which
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is I get it, and I hear that, but it also,
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you know, makes me want to just bang my head
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into the world because like that scenario I just outlined
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a few minutes ago, I can't give them up versus
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they're going to die in a shelter. To me that
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you know, there's no choice there.
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I understand. I almost think of it as you know what,
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think of it as a guest in your home for
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a short while, that's all. And if you can't give
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the cat up and the cats able to be adopted,
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then you just you know, open your hearts, even the
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arms even wider.
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And that happens. And we do have posters. I mean,
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you know, I've kept you know, I plus died a
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lot of cats, so twenty two years or whatever, and
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I wound up keeping a couple and in mostly situations
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where they had some medical issue and they weren't readily
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adaptable anyway, and it's like whatever, they're just they're never leaving, right,
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And I get that, and I'm not unsympathetic to that
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position about getting attached, But like I said, you know,
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when the choice is if that cat doesn't have a foster,
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that cat might not have a life. Then I think
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that requires a reframing in the way we think of
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our role as fosters, and I think of it as
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you know, like maybe a healthcare worker that's working in
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like you know, a rehabilitation facility for someone you know,
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who's been injured or whatnot. You take care of that person.
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You might come really attached, you become really close. You're
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helping that person, but they're not going to live there.
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You're you're just part of the journey on the way
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to a life. You know. You're just kind of a
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way station on the way. You're the bridge between that
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cat hat not having a life at all, of that
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cat's life being ended, and that cat going on to
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find their eventual home, you know, forever all. And so
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I like to think then again, it's a it's a
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little bit of a psychological shift that I think is
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important for foster care providers to attain to think of
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themselves in that way. They're they're you know, it's hard
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not to get attached, especially when you're up night after
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night with sick kittens and you know, you almost lose them,
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and you're medicating them around the clock and you're feeding them.
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Of course you're going to get attached. My goodness, there
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is you know, there's a huge emotional investment. But the
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goal of all of that is so that they have
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a life and they get to go on and live.
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It right, and you'll get past it, I know, most
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of us. I mean, if you're an adult, unfortunately, you've
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probably lost a life that's you know, somebody close to
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you or or fur babe at some point. And it's hard.
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It is really hard. We you know, you have your
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memories and you grow from that and then keep getting
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That's what I think. But easier said than done. Okay,
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what about expenses now, cat pods, did they cover any
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of the expenses for fostering and how does that work?
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Yeah? You sit them slowly and that actually that's one
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of the really nice things about fostering with us anyway,
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and a lot of organizations too. But well, yeah, we
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cover everything. We cover food, We cover any you know,
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meta with veterinary here that the cat maybe any medications.
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I mean most people have like some supplies like the
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litter box and whatnot. But if they don't, we provide
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that too. You know, we provide these pop up Canada's
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playpens for the very small kids to keep them in
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a more confined area and make it easier for people
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to claim, especially when they're very very little, so that they,
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you know, don't get into things. We provide, you know,
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whatever tools, supplies and resources people may need, including support
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of our more experienced foster team.
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Okay, and let's talk about what if you want a foster,
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but you already have cats or dogs in your home.
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Which is I think pretty much all of our fosters
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already have their own animals, they're resident animals. So what
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we require, especially for very small kittens, you know, the
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very very young, they need to be quarantined somehow for
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a couple of weeks because you don't know what they
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might have. And also somebody's resident pet might be fine,
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but might be like a carrier of something and not
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even know it. But that would be devastating to an undeveloped,
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one week old kidden immune system. Right, So we request
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that people keep the cats in a separate room, at
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least initially for a couple of weeks. A bathroom. Separate
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bathroom is grady. And if they do not have an
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extra room or bathroom, you know, some people just have
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a you know, some of our trusters just have a
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one bedroom apartment and in one bathroom that's where that
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pop up canvas playpen comes in, which can be you know,
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found online and there, you know, again, we provide them
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and it's it's essentially folds. It's hard to describe, you know,
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without pictures, but it's just a pop up playpen with
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a zip top and mesh sides and a mesh top,
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and it's easily cleanable. You can put a box, you
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can put their food. I mean some of these are
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quite gay. Some are like four feet across, and you
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can keep the kittens confined in there and away from
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the resident pets.
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Okay, that's all great ideas. So before we talk about
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spain neutering, which is also offered by Cat Paws, let's
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talk about a story. Do you have a story you
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can share of a rescue or a foster or a
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cat that fountain it's forever home.
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Yeah, yeah, there's thousands, early I'm trying. One that we
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continue to celebrate is of a cat named Benny that
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we named them Benny. His foster named him Benny actually,
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and some years back he was brought into the local,
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the shelter that we deal with the most, and by
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a family member, a grandma, and that was living in
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the house. And he had been just terribly, terribly abused
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by allegedly the boyfriend, you know, her multi generation house,
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her daughter's word friend. And he had it's kind of grim,
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but he had broken jaw, broken pelvis, he'd had old
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injuries and he was only seven months old when he
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when she brought him in because she knew that this
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guy was eventually just going to kill him.
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Let me just say, there's a special place and how
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for these people that abuse him was like that, that
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is just well the abuse kids too and women, and
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I mean we can go on.
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But old kitten, yeah, I mean entire kitten. It was
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filled with with that kind of terror of being thrown
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and kicked and in any event, So she, you know,
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thankfully this with the elder metriarch of that family, just
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finally just brought him in. They knew, I mean they did,
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the you know, the DA knew, and but no one
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in the household was willing to testify. I'm sure you know,
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there was who knows what kind of threats and violence
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with being visited upon the human members of that household.
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So unfortunately, after months and months and months of holding
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Benny's evidence and investigating the case, they they finally decided
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they could really no longer successfully prosecute it. But in
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any event, the shelter stabilized them. He couldn't walk when
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he first came in. They they did some initial surgery
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and medical intervention to stabilize him. He was held for
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oh wow, I'm trying six eight months, I can't remember,
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as evidence.
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At the shelter.
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At the shelter, and as soon as the evidence hold
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was up and they determined they couldn't do anything more
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about the prosecution, we took him out. We got him
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into surgery to help with the public fractures. We took him.
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We actually had to first take him to a cardiologist
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because he had a heart murmur that the cardiologists attributed
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to traumatic chronic stress. Oh my gosh, yeah, I mean
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they literally broke his heart, right, yeah, So we had
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to get that checked out before he could undergo surgery. So,
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in any event, long story, his foster care provider, predictably right,
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you know where this is going, she kept him. She
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still has him. He's extraordinarily loved. She takes him out
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in a stroller. He's well known in the neighborhood. He's
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actually a very outgoing cat. He loves people and loves
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to be pettant and loves to be the center of attention,
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which you know, given his history, is I think remarkable.
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And he's he's kind of our ambassador of resilience and
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hope and the healing power of love.
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That is an incredible story, that's amazing.
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And we throw a party for him every year, and
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it's a it's a birthday party, but it's also just
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kind of a love your pet party. Is what we
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know is to just remind people, you know, it's a
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fun time. It's a fun afternoon you're at in the summer.
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It will be coming up in a couple of months
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lest than a couple of months. Actually, fun time near
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the beach afternoon, you know, raffles, vendors, games, face painting,
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you know, for kids, it's the whole thing. But there's
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a serious message underneath it too, about how to treat
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your how to treat your animals, and to celebrate overcoming
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that kind of abuse and trauma.
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Well, it's a wonderful story. We have a few minutes
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I have a couple more questions. Now, you have a
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good spay and neuter program that you have, there's a
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good pat Plots has a good SPAN neuter program, let's
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talk about and it's low cost. So let's talk about
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if people don't live in southern California, what do you
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suggest to them as far as SPAN neuter. I know
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that there's various places. There's also the main society does
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offer some of the main societies does do offer low cost.
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So you have to look around. But what else do
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you suggest? And why is SPAN neuter is so important?
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Well, span neuter and you've always promoted SPAN neuter reased
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to do vouchers. We came out of the legacy of
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trapped neuter return right and so we finally put in
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place a few years ago our own modest clinic program
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to help with that effort. But around the country it's
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so important for that Looping back to the kitten season
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we talked about now all those homeless letters, what to
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do with all those kittens, all those kittens that don't survive.
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Let's get ahead of that problem, and spain neuter is
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foundational to trying to get ahead of in preventing that
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kind of suffering and needless depth, and people might have
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to do some digging, and it's very it's very location
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specific what resources are out there, and they might have
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to do a little bit and you know, digging on
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the internet and just that low cost Spaine nooter on
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your knee or put in their zip code, put in
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their city, maybe called call their local shelter, and if
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their local shelter doesn't offer anything, they may be able
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to connect them with organizations, private nonprofit organizations that might
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be able to help them with the cost.
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Yes, very true. I actually, for one cat, I couldn't
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catch that cat. So I found out through some you know,
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social media, a cat catcher who kind of like a
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drop trap or widely kyote, you know, the coyote. And
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so it's yeah, and I thought, no way she's going
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to get this, get this mom and cat and to
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have no more babies. No way she's going to get
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this cat bigs And while oh it's like twenty minutes
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and very reasonable, it would have been you know, tiny
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savings if I had gone to Remaine Society. A lot
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of the people that do this special catching if you
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can't that you know, have special services, their fees are
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only a tiny bit more than what it might cost
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for regular spay and neuter at a clinic that has
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low cost, and they have set appointments, so as you
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might have to wait to get your you know, kitty
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spe and neutered at a certain time, they have standing appointment.
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So you know, since for my cat, I couldn't catch her,
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not even at a specific time. You know, if I
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had to be there Monday at two, I couldn't have
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her my you know, say twelve or one o'clock. It
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was never so it was a no brainer for me.
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I could not catch her. I caught a raccoon twice,
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baby daddy ones but no so, but they do wonders
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and I strongly advise looking on social media. One more question,
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how would people go about starting a foster group?
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Well, I think it's it helps to obviously be willing,
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it helps to have some funding in place somewhere. It
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does cost money. I mean, our decterinary expenses is probably
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the biggest single wine item expense. But if someone doesn't
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want to, you know, start their their own rescue, which
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is significant undertaking, they can foster themselves for an organization
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or shelter shelters and organizations always need fosters. So I
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would suggest that someone first, if they're interested in the
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old fostering experience, first talk to an established organization or
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to their own local public shelter about fostering to find
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and do it under the auspice of that organization, to
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learn more about what exactly it is, what it entails,
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and then if they want to go on to start
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their own no foster based rescue, the level of that
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idea of what that really means.
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Okay, thank you, Debra. And where can listeners find out
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more about the Helen Sanders cat pause. You know, if
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they're in southern California, they could volunteer, they could foster, adopt,
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00:29:14.039 --> 00:29:15.000
or even donate.
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00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:19.759
That would be fabulous. It is helensanderscatpaus dot com. We
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are in the Long Beach roll with Orange County, California area.
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Okay, perfect, Thank you so much for coming on Catitude.
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00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:29.920
We've covered a lot. I just want to thank you
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00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.000
for having me on and talking about this important issue
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00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:35.119
and getting out there and saving some lots.
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I hope you enjoyed this episode of Catatude. Anytime we're
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00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:46.599
talking about rescue, TNR, adoption and fostering. TNR, TNR tn R.
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00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:49.440
It's just near and dear to my heart. All of
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my cats found me at one time. You know, I
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00:29:51.559 --> 00:29:55.599
had five. Now I have Dennis, Molly and Charlotte. Dennis
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00:29:55.880 --> 00:29:58.480
was pretty sure he was abandoned because he knew the
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00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:01.480
sound of refrigerator and you're feral cats or communion cats
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00:30:01.519 --> 00:30:04.240
don't know the sound of refrigerator. Charlotte sat out in
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00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:06.920
front of my front door for about three months, and
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00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.839
she's a misunderstood pitty, but you know we have to
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00:30:09.880 --> 00:30:12.839
take care of her. Mollie's the diva that was born
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00:30:13.359 --> 00:30:18.480
right on my doorstep. So Sammy is in cat heaven.
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That was her mama and her baby daddy Jethrow moved
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on to other places. And so thank you for all
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00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:29.839
my cats. Thank you again to Deborah Feline mcgaudee for
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00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.960
coming on Catitude. Thank you listeners for listening to Catatude
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00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.119
all these years. I so appreciate it. And thank you,
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00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:39.880
of course to Mark Winter because this would not be
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00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:43.319
the same without the magic of Mark Winter. Thank you Mark,
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00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:48.079
and remember lose the attitude, have Catitude.
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00:30:48.440 --> 00:30:53.519
Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on Petlifradio
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00:30:53.799 --> 00:31:08.039
dot com.
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This is pet Life Radio. Let's Talk Pets.
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Hello, feline friends, Welcome to Catitude. I'm your show host
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Michelle Byrne, and today we have a guest that's going
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to talk about the topic near and dear to my
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heart and you longtime listeners know what that is. Saving
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our cats are kitties, volunteering, fostering, what you can do,
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why you should do it, and also how she helps
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start this amazing organization. So stay tuned, we'll be right back.
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Talk to the pa.
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Hi.
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This is Amy Suret. Hi. I'm Jane Lynch.
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This is Mandy Bourne.
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There, I'm Kate Waller. There's Katherine Tigle.
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There's only one station that gives you the scoop on
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wagging tongues and tails and who's walking who in rent
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in tencil Down pet Life Radio the tail Wagger.
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Let's Talk pets on Petlife Radio dot Com.
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Welcome back everyone. I'd like to welcome Debra Feline Begaldi.
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She is a volunteer with Helen Sanders cat Pause based
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in southern California. You also helped start this organization. Welcome Debra.
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Oh, thank you so very much for having me.
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I'm very excited to have you know, you know, we
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chatted a bit before the show, and I'm you know,
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lived in LA for many years. Now I'm in an
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even warmer climate and it has according to one late
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night host that I adore the esteemed I guess, uh
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terminology of the crazy state. So I live in South Florida. Well,
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right right, I guess because there's always something crazy going
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on here. I don't know, it's not all political. There's
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just a lot of crazy. You never, like today, we
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have a fire in the Everglades. It poured like crazy
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last week, but the fire is still uncontained. I don't
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know how that happens during rainy season, but here we go.
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I'm so sorry.
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Yeah, why do we bring that up? Because warm climates
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tend to have a lot of stray kitties, not own
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and stray cats not only during certain seasonality but all
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year long, because you know, it's easier for them to procreate.
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You know, they're in the outdoors and all of that.
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Let's talk before we get started about kitten seasons and everything.
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Can you share with us tell us about the Helen
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Sanders Cat Pause Organization of course.
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Thank you. It was started officially as a nonprofit you know,
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organized in Bible one c. Three and all that in
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early twenty ten by the roots of the organization go
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deeper than that to a lady named predictably Ellen Sanders,
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who was active in TNR, which is you know, trapped
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New to Return starting back in like the seventies eighties,
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before people even knew what Tea and all her meant
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or dropped New to Return. She was trapping the stray
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feral as they would call at the time, cats hit
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the jetty in the rocks that jut out into the ocean. Here,
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it was just inundated with just straying, free rowing cats,
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and she would trap them. You mainly trap them, get
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them altered, get them vaccinated, and put them back into
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their rocks habitat and feed them every night. She would
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take food to them and manage that colony. She taught
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other people how to do that. When she passed away
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in two thousand and five, some friends put together a
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few underbox just to the cats that were still alive
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at the time for passing. And then eventually a few
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years later we decided to make it official and organize
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and start a rescue in her name, honor and legacy.
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One thing that the Helen Sanders Cat Pause Organization. Does
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that's a little different than some other places. They have
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a DIY kitten care program. Can you share that with us?
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Yeah, So about ten years ago we were working with
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We actually concentrate, we focus mostly on public shelters and
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try to take out the cats and kittens that are
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most at risk of you know, not making it out alive.
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So at the time, one of the shelters that we
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were working with, they were unfortunately just a about one
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thousand kittens year. We're not making it up, and typically
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kittens under four or five weeks old that weren't yet
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eating on their own because they require so much care,
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you know, twenty four hours a day, you know, every
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few hours they have to be fed, right, Shelters are
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not typically staffed twenty four hours, so they were not
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making it out. So what we put together was this
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DIY kitten care kits so that when people came in,
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you know, just thinking oh it's a shelter, I'll bring
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kittens there, and the shelter would say, you know, we
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have no one to take care of these kittens. They're
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not going to make it. They would be offered a
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kit of supplies to take the kitten and the supplies
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and say, here, you take the kitten, here's some supplies,
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and take care of the kitten. Will you take the kitten?
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Take care of the kitten or kittens for you know,
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a couple of weeks least until they're eating on their own.
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Then you can bring them back even and then the
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shelter can handle them better. So it was a way
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to keep the kittens out of the shelter and engage
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the community, just members of the public, to just be rescuers,
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you know, and give them the tools, the information, the formula,
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the bottles, the heating have whatever they needed to give
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those kittens a chance to live that they would not
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have if they entered the shelter system.
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I love that. Now we're going to talk a little
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bit further about kittens because we talked about well right now,
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we're recording the show in June, almost July, so kitten
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season typically runs April through October, and people here kitten season,
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kitten season. So my longtime listeners are probably like, yeah,
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I know what that means, but a lot of people
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do not. So can you explain to our listening audience
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what exactly is kitten season? Why it's important and what
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to look out for.
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Absolutely, thank you. Yeah, kitten season is just way not
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nearly as cute as it sounds. Right, It's that time
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of year, and you mentioned the April to October time frame,
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which is probably the heaviest seasons. And what that means
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is all these kittens and unwanted litters being born that
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overwhelmed shelters, overwhelmed rescues. The kittens are often born frankly sick.
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There's a lot of inbreeding, there's you know, birth defects,
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there's a lot of heartbreak involved in it. In a
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temperate climate like we're in in southern California, it's almost
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really year round. It can have a little bit during
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like you know some of the rainy months and chili
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rainy months that passed, or winter, you know, between November
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and February, but it never really stops. I mean we've
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seen pregnant cats coming in in January, late January and February.
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So these kittens are born, they're born outside. People find them,
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they don't know what to do. They take them to
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the shelter. As I mentioned a moment ago, the shelter
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is often ill equipped to be able to handle, especially
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if there's no mom or if in kittens that need
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to be fed every few hours, and it's just a
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lot of tragedy and tragic outcomes and a lot of
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them don't make it. Unfortunately.
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It's very sad. I mean my cats, so Charlotte and
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Molly are sisters from different misters and different litters. And
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Molly was actually born on my doorstep in September almost
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ten years ago, and it was during which in South
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Florida June through November we have hurricane season. So not
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only do you have to watch out for the kittens
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and see where kat mama has her babies, but you
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also have to be careful where she might hide them.
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In one case, because it was raining so bad, she
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actually hid them up and my spouse's car up near
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the engine. So we always talk about it. You know,
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in cooler months to knock on the car, but you
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have to make sure to be just as tenacious about
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doing so. In the warmer months, they hide under the car,
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They might go inside the car if it's raining trential
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rains or something. So you have to check all over
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the place for these for the kittens, and yeah, it does.
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It sounds pretty ooh, kitten season. But what cats know
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is that means where are we putting all the kittens?
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And then you have the problem too of people adopting
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and not realizing that cute little kittens become cats, which
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are also very cute, but they become cats and they've
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become bigger. So something to think about. One thing I
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want to talk to you about, because we haven't talked
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too much about this on Catitude, Let's talk about fostering,
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because I think a lot of people misunderstand fostering as
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an option and also a lot of people think, well,
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I'm going to become attached. How could I ever give
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that cat up?
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You know.
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And while we're talking about it to all my listeners,
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remember we're all a little part in our roles to
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help cats. Sometimes it's talking about things, sometimes it's fostering,
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sometimes it's just communicating on social media. Whatever your little
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part is, it's all important in saving them and the
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goal to drastically cut down on euthanizing and unfortunate deaths
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because there's accidents too with you know, cars and so forth.
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So tell us about fostering, Deborah.
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Okay, happy to that that fostering is that is the
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backbone of our little organization. We are foster based, and
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what that means is we don't have a shelter, you know,
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facility per se or we you know, stick cat. We
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have foster care providers who are caring for cats in
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their their own homes. So what fostering provides to a cat,
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and again we focus on taking them out of shelters,
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but other organizations, you know, take in ones from the street,
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you know, as it were. But fostering provides to a
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cat the gift of time, you know, time that they
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might not get in a shelter, of care, of love,
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of medical intervention, which is often necessary. A typical scenario
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for us, for example, would be that we get a
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an urgent call. This happens like all day, you know,
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throughout all day every day from shelters. You know, we
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just got in a litter of two week old kittens.
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You know, at the end of the day, if they're
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not taken out, we're going to use an atom, right,
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So we take what we can. If we take those kittens,
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we get them into foster care. So fostering directly saves
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lives by giving cats a chance, giving them that time
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that they might not otherwise get.
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Let me ask you about fostering kittens. You have a DIY,
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so you get calls from shelters. Then you have like
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groups of people that volunteer and do some of them
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just know how to care for kittens? Do you give
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them a little do they have a class? How do
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they know.
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Well a couple of day. I mean if we get
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a call about like the one week old, two week old,
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even up to three week old, I mean that that's
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a really vulnerable age and there's not much room for error.
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So we fortunately do have some experienced fosters who will
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immediately take those in and then we also try to
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groom some of our other foster care providers that maybe
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are familiar with taking kittens that are a little bit older,
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you know, in less time intensive ones that draps are
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eating on their own, but we try to mentor them
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into showing them how to bottle feed, what to look for,
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how to keep those very you know, small, fragile, frail
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kittens and that vulnerable age alive. So and I also
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have been involved in in doing classes even for a
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local shelter for their their own staff and their foster
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care providers. Because you know, one thing I say in
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those classes is no human was born knowing how to
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take care of a newborn kid, right, We all had
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to learn somewhere and somehow. The good news is there's
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a lot more resources online now than there were something
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years ago. Oh yeah, well I first started fostering. I
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mean you can literally just do an interest in that
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search how do I care for an orphan kitten? I
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found a kitten? What do I do? You can put
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that into your into your browser and you will get
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pages and videos about everything you know from how you
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know how to feed, what to feed, when to feed.
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So that's the good news. There's just a lot more
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information out there than they used to be.
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Which is a good thing for so many reasons. We're
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going to take up short break. We'll be right back, Molly.
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Here's your dinner.
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Since that's not your food.
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to eat. It's a beautiful wrought iron tray that easily
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R E E t R A y dot com.
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Let's talk past it.
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Let's radio headline Radio.
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Petlight radio dot com.
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Welcome back everyone. We're talking to Debra. She is a
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volunteer at Helen Sanders Cat Pause. So we're talking about fosters. So, Deborah,
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what do you think are some misconceptions people have when
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they think about fostering. And you foster kittens, but you
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also foster cats.
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Correct, Yeah, we actually have foster needs for everything from
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newborn kittens to cats that have terminal medical diagnoses. To
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be honest, we've taken in you know, what we call
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hospice and phosphus hospice fostering, so it kind of runs
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the gamut. But I think one of the objections or
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concerns I hear most often from people is that all
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I couldn't foster I couldn't give them up, yes, which
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is I get it, and I hear that, but it also,
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you know, makes me want to just bang my head
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into the world because like that scenario I just outlined
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a few minutes ago, I can't give them up versus
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they're going to die in a shelter. To me that
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you know, there's no choice there.
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I understand. I almost think of it as you know what,
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think of it as a guest in your home for
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a short while, that's all. And if you can't give
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the cat up and the cats able to be adopted,
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then you just you know, open your hearts, even the
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arms even wider.
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And that happens. And we do have posters. I mean,
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you know, I've kept you know, I plus died a
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lot of cats, so twenty two years or whatever, and
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I wound up keeping a couple and in mostly situations
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where they had some medical issue and they weren't readily
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adaptable anyway, and it's like whatever, they're just they're never leaving, right,
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And I get that, and I'm not unsympathetic to that
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position about getting attached, But like I said, you know,
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when the choice is if that cat doesn't have a foster,
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that cat might not have a life. Then I think
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that requires a reframing in the way we think of
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our role as fosters, and I think of it as
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you know, like maybe a healthcare worker that's working in
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like you know, a rehabilitation facility for someone you know,
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who's been injured or whatnot. You take care of that person.
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You might come really attached, you become really close. You're
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helping that person, but they're not going to live there.
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You're you're just part of the journey on the way
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to a life. You know. You're just kind of a
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way station on the way. You're the bridge between that
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cat hat not having a life at all, of that
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cat's life being ended, and that cat going on to
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find their eventual home, you know, forever all. And so
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I like to think then again, it's a it's a
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little bit of a psychological shift that I think is
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important for foster care providers to attain to think of
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themselves in that way. They're they're you know, it's hard
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not to get attached, especially when you're up night after
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night with sick kittens and you know, you almost lose them,
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and you're medicating them around the clock and you're feeding them.
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Of course you're going to get attached. My goodness, there
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is you know, there's a huge emotional investment. But the
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goal of all of that is so that they have
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a life and they get to go on and live.
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It right, and you'll get past it, I know, most
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of us. I mean, if you're an adult, unfortunately, you've
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probably lost a life that's you know, somebody close to
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you or or fur babe at some point. And it's hard.
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It is really hard. We you know, you have your
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memories and you grow from that and then keep getting
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That's what I think. But easier said than done. Okay,
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what about expenses now, cat pods, did they cover any
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of the expenses for fostering and how does that work?
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Yeah? You sit them slowly and that actually that's one
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of the really nice things about fostering with us anyway,
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and a lot of organizations too. But well, yeah, we
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cover everything. We cover food, We cover any you know,
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meta with veterinary here that the cat maybe any medications.
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I mean most people have like some supplies like the
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litter box and whatnot. But if they don't, we provide
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that too. You know, we provide these pop up Canada's
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playpens for the very small kids to keep them in
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a more confined area and make it easier for people
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to claim, especially when they're very very little, so that they,
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you know, don't get into things. We provide, you know,
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whatever tools, supplies and resources people may need, including support
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of our more experienced foster team.
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Okay, and let's talk about what if you want a foster,
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but you already have cats or dogs in your home.
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Which is I think pretty much all of our fosters
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already have their own animals, they're resident animals. So what
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we require, especially for very small kittens, you know, the
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very very young, they need to be quarantined somehow for
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a couple of weeks because you don't know what they
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might have. And also somebody's resident pet might be fine,
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but might be like a carrier of something and not
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even know it. But that would be devastating to an undeveloped,
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one week old kidden immune system. Right, So we request
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that people keep the cats in a separate room, at
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least initially for a couple of weeks. A bathroom. Separate
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bathroom is grady. And if they do not have an
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extra room or bathroom, you know, some people just have
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a you know, some of our trusters just have a
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one bedroom apartment and in one bathroom that's where that
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pop up canvas playpen comes in, which can be you know,
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found online and there, you know, again, we provide them
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and it's it's essentially folds. It's hard to describe, you know,
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without pictures, but it's just a pop up playpen with
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a zip top and mesh sides and a mesh top,
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and it's easily cleanable. You can put a box, you
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can put their food. I mean some of these are
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quite gay. Some are like four feet across, and you
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can keep the kittens confined in there and away from
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the resident pets.
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Okay, that's all great ideas. So before we talk about
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spain neutering, which is also offered by Cat Paws, let's
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talk about a story. Do you have a story you
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can share of a rescue or a foster or a
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cat that fountain it's forever home.
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Yeah, yeah, there's thousands, early I'm trying. One that we
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continue to celebrate is of a cat named Benny that
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we named them Benny. His foster named him Benny actually,
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and some years back he was brought into the local,
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the shelter that we deal with the most, and by
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a family member, a grandma, and that was living in
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the house. And he had been just terribly, terribly abused
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by allegedly the boyfriend, you know, her multi generation house,
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her daughter's word friend. And he had it's kind of grim,
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but he had broken jaw, broken pelvis, he'd had old
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injuries and he was only seven months old when he
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when she brought him in because she knew that this
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guy was eventually just going to kill him.
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Let me just say, there's a special place and how
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for these people that abuse him was like that, that
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is just well the abuse kids too and women, and
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I mean we can go on.
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But old kitten, yeah, I mean entire kitten. It was
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filled with with that kind of terror of being thrown
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and kicked and in any event, So she, you know,
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thankfully this with the elder metriarch of that family, just
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finally just brought him in. They knew, I mean they did,
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the you know, the DA knew, and but no one
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in the household was willing to testify. I'm sure you know,
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there was who knows what kind of threats and violence
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with being visited upon the human members of that household.
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So unfortunately, after months and months and months of holding
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Benny's evidence and investigating the case, they they finally decided
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they could really no longer successfully prosecute it. But in
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any event, the shelter stabilized them. He couldn't walk when
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he first came in. They they did some initial surgery
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and medical intervention to stabilize him. He was held for
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oh wow, I'm trying six eight months, I can't remember,
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as evidence.
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At the shelter.
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At the shelter, and as soon as the evidence hold
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was up and they determined they couldn't do anything more
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about the prosecution, we took him out. We got him
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into surgery to help with the public fractures. We took him.
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We actually had to first take him to a cardiologist
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because he had a heart murmur that the cardiologists attributed
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to traumatic chronic stress. Oh my gosh, yeah, I mean
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they literally broke his heart, right, yeah, So we had
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to get that checked out before he could undergo surgery. So,
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in any event, long story, his foster care provider, predictably right,
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you know where this is going, she kept him. She
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still has him. He's extraordinarily loved. She takes him out
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in a stroller. He's well known in the neighborhood. He's
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actually a very outgoing cat. He loves people and loves
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to be pettant and loves to be the center of attention,
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which you know, given his history, is I think remarkable.
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And he's he's kind of our ambassador of resilience and
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hope and the healing power of love.
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That is an incredible story, that's amazing.
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And we throw a party for him every year, and
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it's a it's a birthday party, but it's also just
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kind of a love your pet party. Is what we
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know is to just remind people, you know, it's a
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fun time. It's a fun afternoon you're at in the summer.
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It will be coming up in a couple of months
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lest than a couple of months. Actually, fun time near
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the beach afternoon, you know, raffles, vendors, games, face painting,
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you know, for kids, it's the whole thing. But there's
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a serious message underneath it too, about how to treat
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your how to treat your animals, and to celebrate overcoming
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that kind of abuse and trauma.
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Well, it's a wonderful story. We have a few minutes
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I have a couple more questions. Now, you have a
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good spay and neuter program that you have, there's a
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good pat Plots has a good SPAN neuter program, let's
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talk about and it's low cost. So let's talk about
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if people don't live in southern California, what do you
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suggest to them as far as SPAN neuter. I know
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that there's various places. There's also the main society does
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offer some of the main societies does do offer low cost.
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So you have to look around. But what else do
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you suggest? And why is SPAN neuter is so important?
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Well, span neuter and you've always promoted SPAN neuter reased
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to do vouchers. We came out of the legacy of
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trapped neuter return right and so we finally put in
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place a few years ago our own modest clinic program
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to help with that effort. But around the country it's
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so important for that Looping back to the kitten season
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we talked about now all those homeless letters, what to
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do with all those kittens, all those kittens that don't survive.
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Let's get ahead of that problem, and spain neuter is
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foundational to trying to get ahead of in preventing that
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kind of suffering and needless depth, and people might have
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to do some digging, and it's very it's very location
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specific what resources are out there, and they might have
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to do a little bit and you know, digging on
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the internet and just that low cost Spaine nooter on
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your knee or put in their zip code, put in
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their city, maybe called call their local shelter, and if
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their local shelter doesn't offer anything, they may be able
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to connect them with organizations, private nonprofit organizations that might
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be able to help them with the cost.
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Yes, very true. I actually, for one cat, I couldn't
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catch that cat. So I found out through some you know,
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social media, a cat catcher who kind of like a
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drop trap or widely kyote, you know, the coyote. And
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so it's yeah, and I thought, no way she's going
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to get this, get this mom and cat and to
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have no more babies. No way she's going to get
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this cat bigs And while oh it's like twenty minutes
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and very reasonable, it would have been you know, tiny
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savings if I had gone to Remaine Society. A lot
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of the people that do this special catching if you
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can't that you know, have special services, their fees are
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only a tiny bit more than what it might cost
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for regular spay and neuter at a clinic that has
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low cost, and they have set appointments, so as you
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might have to wait to get your you know, kitty
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spe and neutered at a certain time, they have standing appointment.
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So you know, since for my cat, I couldn't catch her,
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not even at a specific time. You know, if I
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had to be there Monday at two, I couldn't have
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her my you know, say twelve or one o'clock. It
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was never so it was a no brainer for me.
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I could not catch her. I caught a raccoon twice,
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baby daddy ones but no so, but they do wonders
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and I strongly advise looking on social media. One more question,
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how would people go about starting a foster group?
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Well, I think it's it helps to obviously be willing,
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it helps to have some funding in place somewhere. It
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does cost money. I mean, our decterinary expenses is probably
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the biggest single wine item expense. But if someone doesn't
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want to, you know, start their their own rescue, which
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is significant undertaking, they can foster themselves for an organization
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or shelter shelters and organizations always need fosters. So I
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would suggest that someone first, if they're interested in the
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old fostering experience, first talk to an established organization or
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to their own local public shelter about fostering to find
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and do it under the auspice of that organization, to
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learn more about what exactly it is, what it entails,
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and then if they want to go on to start
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their own no foster based rescue, the level of that
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idea of what that really means.
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Okay, thank you, Debra. And where can listeners find out
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more about the Helen Sanders cat pause. You know, if
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they're in southern California, they could volunteer, they could foster, adopt,
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or even donate.
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00:29:15.319 --> 00:29:19.759
That would be fabulous. It is helensanderscatpaus dot com. We
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are in the Long Beach roll with Orange County, California area.
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Okay, perfect, Thank you so much for coming on Catitude.
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00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:29.920
We've covered a lot. I just want to thank you
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00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:33.000
for having me on and talking about this important issue
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00:29:33.079 --> 00:29:35.119
and getting out there and saving some lots.
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00:29:35.319 --> 00:29:39.039
I hope you enjoyed this episode of Catatude. Anytime we're
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00:29:39.039 --> 00:29:46.599
talking about rescue, TNR, adoption and fostering. TNR, TNR tn R.
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It's just near and dear to my heart. All of
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my cats found me at one time. You know, I
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had five. Now I have Dennis, Molly and Charlotte. Dennis
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00:29:55.880 --> 00:29:58.480
was pretty sure he was abandoned because he knew the
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00:29:58.519 --> 00:30:01.480
sound of refrigerator and you're feral cats or communion cats
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don't know the sound of refrigerator. Charlotte sat out in
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front of my front door for about three months, and
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00:30:06.960 --> 00:30:09.839
she's a misunderstood pitty, but you know we have to
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take care of her. Mollie's the diva that was born
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right on my doorstep. So Sammy is in cat heaven.
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That was her mama and her baby daddy Jethrow moved
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on to other places. And so thank you for all
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00:30:25.400 --> 00:30:29.839
my cats. Thank you again to Deborah Feline mcgaudee for
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00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.960
coming on Catitude. Thank you listeners for listening to Catatude
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00:30:34.160 --> 00:30:37.119
all these years. I so appreciate it. And thank you,
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00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:39.880
of course to Mark Winter because this would not be
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00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:43.319
the same without the magic of Mark Winter. Thank you Mark,
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00:30:43.640 --> 00:30:48.079
and remember lose the attitude, have Catitude.
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Let's Talk pets every week on demand only on Petlifradio
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dot com.
