A Pep Talk for Crux and Sierra

Okay girls, we know you’re ready to find a very special adopter!

Crux — you have come so far since you first arrived at Cat Town! Your inner confident cat is on full display when you play with so many visitors. You pounce and leap and twirl and are clearly having fun. And all the while, your progress is growing by leaps and bounds, too!

“And lately, you’re letting people sit closer and closer, when before you would have dashed away. ”

When you first arrived at Cat Town you were so uncertain. You’d hide out in cubbies away from people and other cats, trying to feel safe in a strange new place. It’s great to now see you spend all your time in our big, open space with so many other cats and people. While you’re still a shy girl and not ready for pets, when we get out a toy, you are on it! And lately, you’re letting people sit closer and closer, when before you would have dashed away. We are so impressed with your progress, bringing you closer and closer to finding a forever home.

Crux, you are such a stunning tuxedo girl that everyone notices your striking beauty. Someday soon a patient and loving guardian will see what we see in you, and want to give both you and Sierra a home. You may now be starting to look for your person, too, because when you’re not playing, you’re perched on a chair watching everyone or looking out the window — and now your friend Sierra, has taken up the same watch!

Sierra, we know you’re shy about being touched as well, but people can’t help it: your unusual gray abby-tabby coloring — especially the lovely ombre gray stripes on your tail and legs — makes wanting to pet you the very first thought in our minds. We know you’re still building up courage to let admirers in just a little bit closer as you calmly perch on your favorite infinity scratcher (right next to the window, of course), and we are rooting for you to finally learn how great it is to have a human best friend. It’s just as good as having a feline friend, trust us!

We know that Crux has been a good role model for you — just a little more brave, and full-on when it comes to playing! We know that by watching her example, you’ll eventually graduate from your “one-paw-in, one-paw-out” approach to being all-in, too, but in your own way. You don’t have to leap in the air like Crux — she’s been practicing for months! When you’re ready to join in, we know you’ll have fun, and every baby step towards letting your guard down more is a step we celebrate with you.

One of these days, you both will be perched on a chair or leaning on the window, watching the passers-by, only to discover that a visitor inside, right behind you — someone very patient, with a soft spot for cats like you — is ready to invite you home to stay! We hope that day is soon, but for now, you have all the time you need with us.

Taking a chance — for Pita

I’ve worked in animal welfare for nearly three decades now, and one of the reasons I love working for Cat Town is that we take chances. Often, this means a cat who wouldn’t have been saved otherwise can get the support they need. That was certainly the case for Pita!

Pita was living in a feral colony in July before arriving at the Oakland Animal Services city shelter. She hid in a tiny “feral box” inside her shelter cage, and was unresponsive to petting. Pita wanted to disappear instead.

At one year old, Pita was much older than the typical 10-week-old age limit for helping under-socialized kittens feel brave. We weren’t sure we could help her, but when we saw glimpses of sweetness surface, we decided to try, and got her into one of our foster homes. There, this kitten-at-heart quickly gained confidence thanks to lots of wand toy playtime. However, weeks passed, and she completely stalled out on letting herself be touched. Her foster, who wanted Pita to thrive and find a loving home, reached out for guidance.

My mission was to help Pita’s foster — who had invested so much time and love into our little project-kitty — as much as it was to help little Pita herself.

Typically, I’d do a home visit to see what we might change to continue Pita’s progress, but in the middle of a pandemic, that simply wasn’t an option. Instead, we tested out virtual video-chat consultation to help Pita cross that final barrier. Just a week after some online coaching on treat delivery and approach, Pita decided that petting was A-OK! Now this little girl even approaches her foster for affection and purrs when touched — a breakthrough that warms my heart no matter how often I see it, and makes me thankful that Cat Town looks out for cats like Pita.

Progress like this comes from taking chances. For us staff, we leaned into virtual support to give our fosters encouragement and advice when they needed help. For kittens like Pita, it’s taking a leap of faith even when they’re still not so sure about people.

Now Pita is ready to find herself a home — because this year, we found new ways to set our fosters up for success. With your support, we can continue to take chances, and make more progress, to help as many scared kittens as possible.

Taking a Leap of Faith

“Every time I help Forgotten Kittens I am scared it won’t work — but every time the cats teach me more. ”

— Marie Carney, Maddie's ® Medical Manager

Most rescues would say a hissy, 10- to 12-week old kitten is too old to help. The reason is the cage. Cages make scared kittens more frightened, which is why most rescues say kittens like Dr. Wendy and Holden can’t be helped, and why they get overlooked at the shelter. 

By removing the cage from the equation, and giving kittens older role models to learn from, Cat Town has achieved a 100% success rate helping older kittens learn to trust. Instead of being forgotten, they get adopted. 

I’m passionate about helping these older kittens overcome their fear, and I foster them as often as I can. My most recent set of fosters, Dr. Wendy and Holden, came to me at 20 weeks old. They started off so frightened that they’d run and hide when I would enter the room and cower when I touched them. Over time they learned to enjoy and seek out pets, and even slept in bed with me all night. Every time I help Forgotten kittens I am scared it won’t work — but every time the cats teach me more. At Cat Town, we’ve learned to look past their fear of us. We give them time and show them nothing but love, over and over again.  

That’s when the magic happens. 

One day, they push past their fear, too, and take a chance on giving us their trust. They make a leap of faith, hoping we’ll do what we always do, and treat them gently. And we do. In an instant, they realize it’s all we will ever do. They finally feel safe. They become snuggly kittens.

Today, after 8 weeks of love and positive reinforcement, Dr. Wendy and Holden are at Cat Town’s Adoption Center, rubbing against visitor’s legs to ask for pets. They’ve transformed from completely terrified to ready to be adopted!

As of now, we are still the only organization who will take undersocialized kittens older than 12 weeks from Oakland Animals Services. Because you believe in us, and donate, we can help hissy kittens learn to be brave, and we see this magic daily at Cat Town. 

Thank you for making it possible to help more scared kittens grow up brave!

Helping Hissy Kittens

I worked with Amaryllis for five months to get her ready for adoption. She grew up in a dark corner cage in a crowded shelter, her fear of humans worsening as each day passed. Only one volunteer could touch her during her shelter stay, so she was a feisty, hissy 8-month-old kitten by the time she came to Cat Town. She had to wait at the shelter until we had space, because other rescues won’t typically take under-socialized kittens.

Amaryllis hid behind my toilet for two weeks, so scared it took her five days to eat. After those first two weeks I started to be able to touch her and get her to come out to play. As I worked with her, I couldn’t help but wish that we could have stepped in sooner, when it would have been much easier to earn her trust.

That’s why I’m writing to you today. If we want to help every hissy baby kitten at the shelter as soon as they need us, we need to expand our foster program. An anonymous donor has offered to match your donations for the next 48 hours — up to $1,000 — to help us meet this need.

With more resources for our foster program, we can make sure kittens like Amaryllis spend weeks building trust, not months, and help more kittens without taking funds away from the cats we have always helped. Your donation today will help us care for more kittens by getting to them sooner. Will you please help make sure kittens like Amaryllis get the help they need?

Thank you,

Marie Carney
Maddie’s® Medical Manager

Solving an Unseen Problem

In 2009, shortly after my husband, Steven, and I started volunteering at the Oakland shelter, we realized that a mom with kittens had taken up residence in our backyard. Knowing very little about the world of cat rescue then, we brought the kittens to the shelter when they were about 10 weeks old. We assumed they would quickly get socialized and adopted, but a couple of weeks later, a fellow volunteer let me know that one of the kittens couldn’t be touched and was going to be euthanized.

Brave little Felt helped Orbea learn to trust us.

I still remember the panicked call I made to Steven when we agreed we had to bring the kittens home. We named them Felt and Orbea.

Orbea, before we earned her lifelong love.

Where Felt wanted nothing more than to be held, I was as afraid of Orbea as she was of me. Thankfully, we found someone to teach us how to safely interact with her, and after many weeks, we slowly earned Orbea’s trust. Orbea and Felt became beloved members of our family, and taught me about a need in our community I didn’t even know existed.

I have since learned that kittens are biologically open to being socialized at 5-7 weeks old. Even if you’re not particularly skilled, you can socialize a 7-week-old kitten in hours. Socializing that same kitten just a few weeks later can take weeks, and once they get 3 or 4 months old, it can take months. For this reason, kittens as young as 10 weeks old are euthanized in significant numbers in shelters across the country. But because of my experience with Felt and Orbea, helping older kittens has been an integral part of Cat Town’s mission.

I am thrilled to say that, through our Forgotten Kitten Project, Cat Town now helps every older kitten who comes into the Oakland shelter. And, Cat Town’s work is now a national model for saving these kittens and showing others how to do the same. We are committed to giving these youngsters a chance no one else will — but can’t always step in as soon as we’d like.

Often, these forgotten kittens must wait more than a month for us to have the resources to take them from the shelter. Each day they spend terrified in a cage, it becomes more challenging to fulfill our promise to help them.

This summer, we want to get to those kittens sooner to help more kittens in need of our intervention. To do so, we have to expand our foster program. If we can get unsocialized kittens out of the shelter as soon as they arrive, it will be easier to earn their trust and get them adopted, and will change the trajectory of their entire lives by helping them become more confident and resilient.

With your support, we can get these kittens out of the shelter this summer. Please consider a donation today to help us support these overlooked youngsters!