Friends for Life Animal Rescue

Happy Ending - India's Blue appears to have found her happy place!

Congratulations to her new family!

Available pair: Citrine and Cullen
Cullen (3 yo Siamese mix male) and Citrine (3-4 yo orange and white female) are a bonded pair of cats looking for a quiet forever home. They were both surviving on their own in the wild before we offered them sanctuary and they are getting better every day at being brave. They are not hermits and like to see what’s going on in their foster home, but will need to go on a journey of trust with their people. It is too sweet seeing them chirping at each other and doing body bumps and head rubs.

Their foster home is very chaotic and so not ideal for them, but they should bloom in a quiet loving home.

If you have a rescuers heart and are happy to take that journey of trust with this quirky bonded pair, please contact Laura at 540-272-3506

The rumors are true! Stokes Pharmacy to Offer Legal FIP Treatment in the US Available June 1st. Stokes Pharmacy has formed an exclusive partnership with the Bova Group to offer a U.S.-made compounded oral treatment for feline infectious peritonitis (FIP). This treatment is supported by Bova’s unique drug formula, which has been utilized in clinical research studies across the globe and is currently in use in the UK and Australia.

Stokes Pharmacy’s compounded preparation will be available by a veterinarian prescription only. In order to prescribe, please sign up for iFill at https://www.ifill.com/

More information coming soon!

Meet our beautiful Mia, a sweet and affectionate cat looking for her forever home. See her page for more details.

https://friendsforliferescue.rescuegroups.org/animals/detail?AnimalID=20186762

Coming up this Sat in Sedro Woolley. Amy Stanek will be leading this event and is hoping to get lots of donations for our upcoming Family Freebies as well as share with some local rescues. We need your donations of all kinds of pet food, pet toys, blankets, towels, sheets-used and in any condition but they MUST be clean. :)

LOVE getting updates!!!

This was a little orphan that ended up at the Sedro-Wooley Police Department one day when Officer S was working, and of course she called her mom at FFLAR. This is from the kitten's adoptor:

From: Barb
Date: January 20, 2024
Subject: Rylie

Hello…I hope you are doing well!

I adopted Rylie in July 2021…he is doing well!

Thought you would enjoy a picture of my boy!! I sent his picture to “PawPrints” calendar through Facebook….He is Mr. September!!

Have a GREAT day!

Barb H

[https://thepawprint.store/products/2024-paw-print-calendar]

Thank you for your donation, Sue B!

Wow! Great thanks to Robert S and Linda M for your donations! Your support means such a tremendous amount to small groups like ours!

Thank you, Sue, for your monthly donation! It really is a help to the animals in our care!

Thank you for your monthly donation, Sue!

Cats are social animals. Their relationships with other cats can range from friends to foes or anywhere in-between. Which of these behaviors do you see between your cats? Where does their relationship lie on the spectrum?

Happy Monday! Let's start the week off with a little perspective 🤓

Kitten season is upon us(did it ever really end?!), and I'd like to spew some care requirements at you to show you just how much goes into a litter of kittens.

After working with thousands of cats over the years, here are some rough numbers I've experiences for you to consider.

Mom cats give birth to between 4 and 8 kittens on average. Mom cats need deowrmed and vaccinated, plus they eat at least 3 times what they usually do while pregnant or nursing- at least 1 full can of wet food daily plus all the dry food they want while pregnant.

Beginning as soon as 2 weeks, but usually at 4 weeks of age, all kittens need dewormed, usually 2 types of dewormer are involved. This continues every 2 weeks until they are adopted or reach 4-6 months of age.

At 6 weeks, each kitten begins their vaccination schedule. Depending on rescuers medical protocol, they receive vaccines every 2-4 weeks until they reach 4 months old. At 4 months old, they also receive a rabies vaccine.

Sometimes, the family needs medication. Could be for parasite overload, URI, eye infections, all of the above. Medications are usually given in 7-14 days courses. Sometimes the course is shorter or longer depending on medication type and illness being treated. This needs medication bottles and additional syringes.

As early as 8 weeks old, kittens begin the spay and neuter process. This procedure can only happen if they've reached a certain weight, and their overall health can impact their weight greatly. If they've been sick, they usually have to wait for their surgery.

When they are fixed, they receive a microchip and flea treatment.

One cat, born in foster care uses 3-5 syringe/needle sets for vaccines, 3-5, 1ml syringes for dewormer, 3-5, 3ml syringes for dewormer, one microchip, 1-3 flea treatments, 1-3 pill bottles, 1-3 liquid rx bottles, 1-3 large syringes for fluid therapy, a handful of needle replacements, a handful of butterfly needle sets, and so much more that I'm forgetting.

These are just the rudimentary medical supplies for the typical litter that passes through a rescue. This doesn't include intensive care for moderate to severe illness, like fluid therapy, nebulizer supplies, 3-5 different types of eye drops until you find one that works, swapping antibiotics because they've contracted a different infection, spot treatments for mouth or nose sores, syringes and high calorie food for syringe feeding, injectable vitamins, or fever reducers. This doesn't include the food that is consumed by mom to keep milk supply up until kittens can eat on their own. This doesn't include bottle feeding supplies and formula if mom can't produce enough milk because she's sick, or stressed, too young to be having babies, or flat out doesn't want to nurse her kittens (we see these things a lot later in the season). This doesn't include the food the babies need once they are weaned from mom (a litter of 4 goes through AT LEAST one case of 24 cans in less than two weeks), they need wet food twice a day to stay hydrated, plus the dry food they're offered 'round the clock (a litter of 4 goes through AT LEAST one 6 lb bag per month).

Plus the blankets, litter, litter boxes, p*e pads, wash clothes, towels, laundry detergent, dishes, dish soap, gloves...enrichment tools like toys, scratchers, treat dispensers. Plus the supplies needed to outfit your foster/intake head quarters like bleach, sanitizing wipes, scales, bags of fluids, heating pads, syringes of various sizes, needles, collars, KMR, high calorie supplements/foods, prescription foods for high-risk intakes, blacklights, crates, scrub tops, scrub pants, first aid kits, bite gloves, crates, and so much more.

ONE LITTER OF KITTENS, y'all. One litter takes all of this. And rescues take in so much more than one litter every season.

They need things like syringes, needles, scales, heating pads, cleaning supplies. They'd love a new set of litter boxes without cracked sides, or a new couple crates that they don't have to zip tie together. They'd love to stock their supplies up so when someone asks how they can help, they have a foster kit ready to go out the door that same day with all the supplies needed to get started. They'd love to have cases of wet food and bags of dry food on demand. They need bags and bins of litter, and ziploc baggies to send these things home with their foster families.

And they need us to help fill these cabinets and shelves and kits and cars. They need our help to get their foster homes ready for the season. They need our help to save all these homeless meows and I know we won't let them down because I know you guys by now and you're the ones that have made us "The Little Bin That Could".

We can do this for them. Just look at the sweet faces at Oakbrook Cat Rescue that need us!

Wishlists:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/IU0MYC7VQFBE?ref_=wl_share

https://www.walmart.com/registry/ER/9f9cb71e-8d65-4ec3-be1d-2372221b5354

This trick is the tip of the iceberg of medicating tricks and possibilities, but it is an excellent and often underutilized tool.

If you need help medicating your cat, I am here to help! However, I cannot recommend enough getting ahead of it and training your cats to take medications BEFORE they need medications. Here is a link to get you started if you would like guidance.

https://www.fundamentallyfeline.com/services/medicating-consults/

Looking for a fabulous duo?

Just a mournful post. I love being a small rescue, but fundraising and getting grants is hard, as so many grantmakers are turning to ways that almost ensure the big rescues/shelters are the ones who "win." Amazon Smile has just added to the ways we will not get funds.

"

Dear customer,

In 2013, we launched AmazonSmile to make it easier for customers to support their favorite charities. However, after almost a decade, the program has not grown to create the impact that we had originally hoped. With so many eligible organizations—more than 1 million globally—our ability to have an impact was often spread too thin.

We are writing to let you know that we plan to wind down AmazonSmile by February 20, 2023. We will continue to pursue and invest in other areas where we’ve seen we can make meaningful change—from building affordable housing to providing access to computer science education for students in underserved communities to using our logistics infrastructure and technology to assist broad communities impacted by natural disasters.

To help charities that have been a part of the AmazonSmile program with this transition, we will be providing them with a one-time donation equivalent to three months of what they earned in 2022 through the program, and they will also be able to accrue additional donations until the program officially closes in February. Once AmazonSmile closes, charities will still be able to seek support from Amazon customers by creating their own wish lists.

As a company, we will continue supporting a wide range of other programs that help thousands of charities and communities across the U.S. For instance:
Housing Equity Fund: We’re investing $2 billion to build and preserve affordable housing in our hometown communities. In just two years, we’ve provided funding to create more than 14,000 affordable homes—and we expect to build at least 6,000 more in the coming months. These units will host more than 18,000 moderate- to low-income families, many of them with children. In one year alone, our investments have been able to increase the affordable housing stock in communities like Bellevue, Washington and Arlington, Virginia by at least 20%.
Amazon Future Engineer: We’ve funded computer science curriculum for more than 600,000 students across over 5,000 schools—all in underserved communities. We have plans to reach an additional 1 million students this year. We’ve also provided immediate assistance to 55,000 students in our hometown communities by giving them warm clothes for the winter, food, and school supplies.
Community Delivery Program: We’ve partnered with food banks in 35 U.S. cities to deliver more than 23 million meals, using our logistics infrastructure to help families in need access healthy food – and we plan to deliver 12 million more meals this year alone. In addition to our delivery services, we’ve also donated 30 million meals in communities across the country.
Amazon Disaster Relief: We’re using our logistics capabilities, inventory, and cloud technology to provide fast aid to communities affected by natural disasters. For example, we’ve created a Disaster Relief Hub in Atlanta with more than 1 million relief items ready for deployment, our Disaster Relief team has responded to more than 95 natural disasters, and we’ve donated more than 20 million relief products to nonprofits assisting communities on the ground.
Community Giving: We support hundreds of local nonprofits doing meaningful work in cities where our employees and their families live. For example, each year we donate hundreds of millions of dollars to organizations working to build stronger communities, from youth sport leagues, to local community colleges, to shelters for families experiencing homelessness.
We’ll continue working to make a difference in many ways, and our long-term commitment to our communities remains the same—we’re determined to do every day better for our customers, our employees, and the world at large.

Thank you for being an Amazon customer."

I get it. But it still sucks. Amazon Smile was a great, passive way to earn a few hundred a few times a year. At least we had it for a while.

https://www.petfinder.com/cat/spice-ks-59324112/wa/burlington/friends-for-life-animal-rescue-wa466/

Adopt Spice - KS on Petfinder Spice - KS is an adoptable Cat - Domestic Short Hair Mix searching for a forever family near Burlington, WA. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area.

https://www.petfinder.com/cat/leo-ks-59324115/wa/burlington/friends-for-life-animal-rescue-wa466/

Adopt Leo - KS on Petfinder Leo - KS is an adoptable Cat - Domestic Short Hair & Tuxedo Mix searching for a forever family near Burlington, WA. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area.

https://www.petfinder.com/cat/bj-ks-59324114/wa/burlington/friends-for-life-animal-rescue-wa466/

Adopt BJ - KS on Petfinder BJ - KS is an adoptable Cat - Domestic Short Hair Mix searching for a forever family near Burlington, WA. Use Petfinder to find adoptable pets in your area.

Thank you, Sid, for your donation!

Working with Fearful & Aggressive Felines - An Online Conference on February 11, 2023

Presenters:
Laura Cassiday, CCBC, Fear Free Certified Trainer
Patience Fisher, ACCBC, CVA, Dip.FBST, MS
Katenna Jones, ScM, ACAAB, CCBC, CDBC, Certified Fear Free Trainer
Trish McMillan, MSc, CPDT-KA, CDBC, ACCBC – Assessing Behavior in Shelter Cats
Tabitha Kucera, CCBC, RVT, KPA-CTP

CEUs pending for IAABC, CCPDT and KPA. Early bird registration now available!

Go to https://hippocampusonline.com/course/working-with-fearful-aggressive-felines/ for more info and to register!

Kittens begin to retract their claws at about 28 days of age and begin to scratch things by day 35. It's important to accustom kittens to having their paws handled and their nails trimmed and to offer them enticing objects to scratch. Read more about scratching at https://kittencoalition.org/good-kitty-satisfying-your-kittens-need-to-scratch-and-saving-your-furniture/.