Annex Cat Rescue

Feature cat: Annie

admin — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 03:37:41 +0000

Annie is a gregarious girl with a personality as unique as her black-and-whtie zig-zag markings. Rescued from a south Riverdale cat colony with her brother, Annie settled into indoor life in her foster home, making friends right away with the resident felines. She just loves other cats, especially boy cats, and optimistically tries to win the affection of those who don’t immediately warm up to her — generally successfully too! Who can resist those gorgeous eyes? She’s an energetic girl who delights in kittenish antics, playfully batting at and chasing toys about. When she’s not actively playing with them, she (an endearingly quirky cat) carries her favourite toys around the house in her mouth, lest there be any confusion about whose toys they are! Annie can be equally monopolizing of her foster parents’ laps which she enjoys curling up in in quiet moments. Annie’s curiosity tends to win out over her initial shyness and she can be very affectionate, nuzzling against and purring for her favourite people. One of her sweetest games involves leaping onto the bed in the wee hours of the morning and saying ‘I love you’ by purring in and licking her foster parents’ ears! Annie would do well in a calm, quiet adoptive home, just as she’s settled right into her foster home in a relatively short period of time. As a result of her rough start in life, she can be hesitant with strangers at first, but she’d do wonderfully as a part of a permanent home and would only continue to blossom with time, patience, and love. Annie would be a perfect addition to your family, especially as a pal for another playful, friendly young cat.

NOW magazine Toronto

Shanley — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 22:54:46 +0000

Media: NOW Magazine Toronto, December 2011

I resolve to help feral kittens
By Joshua Errett

It dawned on me recently that I’m not a very good human being. I don’t give to charity, always forget birthdays, never call my mother and usually leave parties without saying goodbye to anyone.

My only contribution to society, I realized, is that I’ve saved the lives of countless kittens.

In 2012, I resolve to save more.

Conservatively, there are 100,000 homeless felines in the city. There are 6 million reasons to reduce that number.

One is that the cats that survive our brutal winter lead a wretched existence. They’re starved and disease-ridden. They fight predators for their lives. They live one or two years. For humans, witnessing all this amounts to torture.

Another is that while they are alive, they behave like savages, killing birds, squirrels and other animals and causing millions of dollars’ worth of property damage. They produce volumes of kittens who continue this disruptive tradition.

If these arguments don’t compel you to join my rescue mission to help control the feral population, there’s this: cats are our responsibility.

We entered into a contract with them 10,000 years ago to care for one another – a pact still binding today.

Furthermore, cats and humans are inseparable. Choose any feral cat on the street and trace its family history. There’s a near 100 per cent chance that somewhere in history its ancestors and yours shared a home.

Responsibility aside, taking action to stop the vicious cat cycle is personally rewarding.

Every single creature I get spayed or neutered prevents another generation of suffering ferals.

At the end of October, my wife and I were walking to the grocery store when we heard the screeches of a cat fight in a neighbouring yard. I looked over the fence and saw three cats and two kittens about size of my palm. They were so malnourished, they looked more like Gremlins than cats.

The property owners didn’t care much about them and gave us a week to get them out of their yard.

We arranged for a volunteer from Annex Cat Rescue to help us trap the creatures – trap, neuter, return – and relocate them. (I can’t say where. Printing the location is an invitation for cat murderers to do them harm, believe it or not.)

We rescued the kittens and had the two older cats spayed/neutered. We released back into the wild, ears clipped to show they’d been fixed.

Now these cats belong to the neighbourhood. They live in a space generously donated by my grocery store, in shelters we built at the Humane Society. Three shifts of neighbours help me feed them.

It’s a not perfect situation. I have no idea what will happen come spring when the grocery store has to use the space again, or if the shelters will even be warm enough in winter – but it feels wonderful to help these magnificent animals make a better life for themselves.

So, sure, I could tip more in restaurants or stop shoplifting from the bulk bin at my grocery store or start replying to emails. But I don’t think any of those good deeds has as much impact as helping those cats – and their kittens, and their kittens’ kittens – out of misery.

Here’s to a happy new year to all of the city’s feral cats. May you be fixed, fed and fulfilled in 2012.

Want to help? Go to TorontoStreetCats.com.

Feature cat: Annie

Shanley — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 20:52:53 +0000

ACR @ the Tranzac Artisans Fair – December

Shanley — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 03:24:25 +0000

ACR will be at Tranzac Artisans Gift Fair every Saturday and Sunday in December.

When: December 3rd & 4th, 10th & 11th and 17th & 18th from 12pm to 6pm each day.

Where: 292 Brunswick Avenue, just south of Bloor Street, between Bathurst Street and Spadina Avenue. Click here for map.

Iams Home 4 The Holidays Nov 12&13

saras — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 21:56:21 +0000

The Annex Cat Rescue will be participating in Iams Home 4 The Holidays event at the Canadian Tire at Lawrence and Allen this weekend, Saturday and Sunday November 12 & 13 1:00pm – 5:00pm

Feature Cat: Ivory

Shanley — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 02:29:27 +0000

Ivory is a stunning odd eyed beauty that has a personality as unique as her looks. Ivory knows she is gorgeous and is quite the diva. She expects the world to revolve around her and had her foster dad wrapped around her little paw in no time. She is calm and relaxed when she wants to be and quirky and amusing the next moment. She can be very playful and can entertain herself with her toys. Ivory would do best in a home with no other pets or children as they do make her nervous.

Interested in adopting Ivory? Find out more about our adoption process.

The Star

Shanley — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:20:23 +0000

Media: The Star, October 2011

Controlling the cat colonies

Nobody likes Morris, so he eats alone.

The feral orange cat — which looks uncannily like the former star of TV commercials — is timid and peeks out from behind a fence as another group of feral felines skitter around their benefactor, Robin Sarafinchan, who arrives one rainy afternoon with bowls of food in hand.

The 46-year-old office manager coaxes Morris from behind a piece of industrial equipment with a container of food just for him. He won’t eat while she is near but eagerly burrows into the bowl when she steps away.

The tomcat, one of few in the colony of about 20 feral cats at an east-end Toronto site that hasn’t yet been neutered, is a fairly recent arrival on the scene and the other cats haven’t accepted him yet, explains Sarafinchan, who has been helping feed and take care of this colony for almost three years.

These ferals are part of an astonishing animal ‘underground’ — the Toronto Humane Society estimates there are about 100,000 feral and homeless cats in the GTA, with hundreds of kittens being born every day. About 75 per cent of those feral kittens will die, the THS estimates, claimed by predators, disease, malnutrition and the elements.

But the numbers who survive in alleys, industrial areas, parks, ravines, parking lots, and little alcoves in the city — along with the many cats that are dumped on the streets, often near feral cat colonies if people are aware of them — keep the numbers burgeoning.

At the east-end colony where Sarafinchan ministers, along with her husband and two other helpers who help make sure the colony’s cats are fed every day of the year, she has managed to contain the population by trapping, neutering and returning the cats, spending thousands of her own dollars. Only a couple of males have not yet been neutered. The colony has gone from producing 35 kittens almost three years ago, when she first got involved, to three kittens last year, to none in 2011 “which is a huge triumph,’’ says Sarafinchan. Homes were found for all the kittens.

All the cats are named — there’s Hank, whose rotten teeth all had to be pulled but who still loves hard kibble; Jackson, who will allow some petting; Teddy and Tina, who both have matted dirty fur because they’re longhairs; and many others. The colony devours about six big cans of soft food and a large half bag of kibble every day.

These ferals, which have access to small, insulated winter shelters the volunteers have provided, have been here for years — longer than Sarafinchan has been coming.

“A feral cat in a managed colony such as ours could live for 10 years, but without food or shelter they live only a year or two,” says Sarafinchan, an articulate woman who does not meet any sort of stereotypical description of “crazy cat person” — though she’s come across people who think she is.

“People who don’t like animals are crazy,” she responds. “These cats are living creatures who are here because they were abandoned or owners didn’t have their cats fixed,” says Sarafinchan who admits the time and cost involved can be burdensome. “But I can’t just walk away . . . I know they’re waiting and they’re hungry. I’ve developed relationships with these animals.”

She says it’s not enough for colony caretakers to just feed feral felines; the solution is to get them sterilized.

The THS, along with Toronto Animal Services, which also has free spay/neuter clinics and has a trap-lending service, are part of the Toronto Feral Cat Trap Neuter Return Coalition which includes representatives from a number of cat welfare groups in the GTA. Caretakers who register the colonies they take care of — to date 135 cat colonies have been registered — can take advantage of the free sterilizations.

The coalition is hoping to map the city’s feral colonies and promote the TNR program to manage the wild cat population.

Spay-neuter clinic and cat shelter build

The Toronto Humane Society is marking international Feral Cat Awareness Day on Oct. 16 with a spay-neuter clinic, hoping to sterilize 50 feral cats which will break its own one-day record. THS veterinarians are volunteering their time for the event and will work with caretakers of feral cat colonies in the GTA who trap the cats, bring them in for the procedure, provide a space for convalescence and release the cats back to their colony.

On the same day, volunteers at the River St. location are building small shelters for feral cats, which consist of heavy duty plastic containers outfitted with insulation, straw and special entrances. They’ll be distributed by colony caretakers.

The THS has sterilized more than 500 feral cats and held 20 Trap-Neuter-Return sterilization clinics since last fall. It is part of the Toronto Feral Cat TNR Coalition which includes Toronto Animal Services and animal welfare groups such as Annex Cat Rescue, Action Volunteers for Animals, Animal Alliance and Urban Cat Relief.

To participate in the free THS spay-neuter clinic, a feral cat colony caretaker must register the colony with the THS. The coalition of shelters and animal welfare groups are trying to map the feral cat colonies in the GTA and build strategies to address the issue and control the population. To date there are 135 registered cat colonies — sizes on average range from 10 to 30 cats. That’s considered only a fraction of the feral cat colonies existing in the GTA.

Toronto Animal Services has sterilized more than 500 feral cats since opening its TNR clinic in July 2010.

Feral Cat Day @ THS

Shanley — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 03:51:17 +0000

Interested in learning more about feral cats? Come to International feral cat day and learn how to build winter shelters, socialize feral kittens, care for a colony and much more. There will also be the opportunity to watch a spay/neuter operation.

When? Sunday October 16th from 12pm-5pm
Where? Toronto Humane Society, 11 River Street (click for directions)

Click to view poster in full size

Feature Cat: Lizzy

Shanley — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:42:17 +0000

Lizzy has never had a forever home of her own. Look at this sweet girl! She’s now 2 and has been with Annex Cat Rescue since she was a small kitten.

One of our volunteers found her and her sibling (who has been adopted) dumped in the lane behind her house- no mom cat or responsible human anywhere near by. Our foster home volunteers have been caring for her and she’s had lots of care and loving but that’s not the same as a forever home.

Lizzy is an elegant, short-haired kitty with big yellow eyes and a shiny black coat that turns chocolate in the sunlight (where she can often be found snoozing). Lizzy LOVES playing, both with other cats, and with anything a human chooses to throw, dangle or swish in her direction. Lizzy feels passionate about treats, and will come running whenever her foster mom whistles to say that something tasty is being offered.

Lizzy is very shy when meeting strangers, but given the opportunity to settle into a new environment, she is a very sweet girl. Lizzy would do best in a quiet home with adults, and where she might also have the company of other kitties.

CNE Cat Show

Shanley — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 02:36:17 +0000

ACR will be at the CNE’s 40th Annual Cat Show! There will be more than 125 cats from across Ontario that will be showcased in display and in competition. ACR will not be showing or have cats at the show, but will have volunteers available to talk about our equally gorgeous (though not so fancily pedigreed) feline friends.

Where: Cafe Soleil, Direct Energy Centre, CNE grounds (click for directions)
When: Saturday, Aug 27th & Sunday, Aug 28th, 10 am till 5 pm