Update #16 July 26, 2024 The good news is that the new FURR sanctuary is now up and running, so these kitties are finally enjoying their purrr-fect place in peace and comfort after Terry recently spent weeks getting all of them vetted as part of the process of moving them from old to new locations.
The sad news is that we lost Atlantic, a beloved member of this community on July 24, 2024. Here is is story a only Terry can tell it…
Atlantic – early July 2024
The kitty, named “Atlantic”, had seemed lethargic for a week or so. I noticed him sleeping a lot. Then I noticed some other tell tell signs of him not feeling well such as his 3rd eyelid up. He seemed to be losing weight although he was eating? Atlantic was sleeping in the same spot for a while and I could see something was wrong. I managed to catch him with my net this morning and take him to Sound Cat.
Dr. Rockwell called me with the bad news that he was in either liver or kidney failure. There was really no hope of helping him and he was becoming jaundice (which I could not tell from a distance). Dr. Rockwell gently and professionally told me the bad news. I know I’ve had Atlantic at least 2 years while waiting to open the new sanctuary.
I’m so sad that he will not get to enjoy living more years there. He surely didn’t deserve to pass so young. He was only a few years old. Please say a prayer for Atlantic. I’m really struggling with why this had to happen to him.
Update #15 July 6, 2023 I’m sitting out at the seafood plant trying to lure the last 2 kitties to my feeding station. I hope to trap them in the next few days, but the fireworks may frighten them to death, so praying that they are still around after tomorrow so I can try to save them.
Really hoping these are, indeed, the LAST two kitties out of DOZENS that I have saved at this horrible place soon to be torn down.
I have about 25 cats in my makeshift pen at my house from the seafood place. ALL are waiting for a better place to be to live out their lives. My pen is small and the shed is small, but at least I know the cats are fed twice a day, litter cleaned twice a day, plenty of clean water provided and I have several fans going in the shed and recently bought a small portable air conditioner. I keep hoping the A/C will not throw a power surge. Although it is NOT working as well as I had hoped, at least it is not 100 degrees in the shed. Most of the cats stay in the loft area up high, but that is the hottest part of the shed. I’m doing everything I can to keep them safe & comfortable.
I built some large building blocks for them to use to get up to the loft.
These cats mean the world to me and I need to get them to a new sanctuary ASAP!
Peeking down at me as I fix their food & fill their water pans,…..such sweet innocent kitties !
Update #14 June 8, 2023 Crappie’s dental surgery in late May was successful! This kitty is undoubtedly feeling MUCH better by now, several days into recovery! More updates soon on other needs previously noted, but for now let’s enjoy this accomplishment!
Update #13 May 7, 2023 Last night was a LONG night & today spent taking cats & helping my niece…
Crappie – May 2023
Caught THREE cats last night at the seafood place!!! Thought there were only a couple cats left & low & behold, I CAUGHT THREE!!! Took all night, but all 3 got fixed today at the WONDERFUL Cape Fear Spay/Neuter Clinic in Castle Hayne, and all 3 tested negative & got all the vet work needed. One of the cats had been trapped & released by me a couple years ago & I was THRILLED she had lived a couple years & still alive to be rescued again!!! Today’s bill for the 3 trapped & rescued kitties from last night was $500+. All 3 kitties tested negative. They got all their shots, blood testing, etc. PLEASE help if u can!!!
I am out here again tonight trying desperately to save the last couple of kitties before this fish production plant is leveled out to become a hotel!!! God help me save the last couple of kitties…..they have no idea what’s coming. Still have mama kitty being monitored with a GPS tracking collar, but cannot find kittens yet & MUST find kittens before re-trapping mama
I am sitting out here again tonight going after a tough catch…..wish me luck!!!..
Here are pics from today. Thanks for prayers & well wishes for these sweeeet babies!!!
Terry
Update #12 May 16, 2023 Poor Crappie has been waiting for weeks to get her dental at Sound Cat. She is in horrible pain & can barely eat. NOW that her appt is about here, ALL of Sound Cat’s dental equip is broken! They have no idea when it will all be replaced! So we’ve scheduled it to be done at Atlantic Animal Hospital (AAH) on May 23rd instead!
Meanwhile, I have another FERAL cat that I trapped named “Salty” and when sedated & updating his shots, etc., I was told that he ALSO needs a dental!!! I’ll schedule his dental while I am at AAH with Crappie.
Update #11 May 13, 2023 Trapped & rescued THREE kitties last week from the seafood place! Got a tortie female (shown left) & a black female (shown right) that have migrated over to behind the attorney’s office !!! Both of these kitties have been trapped before & have tipped ears. I took both of them to the vet to get them updated on their shots, blood testing & flea/worm treatment. They both tested negative & I currently have them in my garage recovering from their trauma.
The other blue/gray Russian blue-looking kitty with a big white spot on his chest (shown left) is the spitting image of Perch! He is definitely a younger sibling & his microchip tells me that his name is “Blue Marlin”! He is one that I trapped & TNR’d before & now trapped again to save him from the seafood place! Blue Marlin was also transported by me to the vet for updating his shots, etc., but he had a special look in his eyes???
He seemed grateful for being rescued & I could just tell he was submitting to me. He blinked at me and didn’t run away when I slowly reached out to pet him…I took him to FURR. I think this one will be adoptable quickly! I offered him some kitty treats. He had NO idea what to do with them. I got this adorable picture of him after sticking 2 treats up under his 💋 lips! What a cutie!!! I just love him already!!!
Well, it’s gonna be a long night….sitting out here alone with traps set. Please pray for me & the kitties! Only 4 or 5 left to save!!!
It’s been a journey!!!
Crappie’s-painful-dental-issues-April-2023
Update #10 May 3, 2023 Crappie’s full mouth dental surgery is in 2 weeks (on waiting list for sooner!). Generous donations have very thankfully come in, but at least half the funds are still needed. She is in pain and the Vet’s bill will be at least $800 – $1,000. The above photo of her shows how she holds her mouth open due to her painful dental issues. She is in a kennel in my garage with her sister (Cuttlefish) to keep her company.
Update #9 April 23, 2023 URGENT!!! “CRAPPIE” (like the fish) is one of the black ferals I trapped, fixed, recovered & put in my small temporary pen in my backyard (shown at the left and top of the page). I noticed that she was staying in a corner & she was holding her head up like she was trying to breathe! I managed to get a net on her & get her in a crate. We went straight to the vet. I was very worried especially since Crappie is one of the FIV+ cats.
The vet said Crappie has Horrible URI! Rotten teeth! Broken teeth! Infected gums! POOR KITTY! She surely would have died had she not been rescued. After sedation, x-rays, antibiotic shot, pain meds, etc., the bill was $300. Now Crappie is on the wait list for FULL MOUTH EXTRACTIONS which will run $800-$1,000! Please help us raise the money for Crappie! These kind of emergencies really wipe out our funds. Please say a prayer that she will be ok & get her dental surgery soon! Bless all of you that care so much!
Update #8 April 25, 2023 Caught 2 cats Sunday night at the seafood place. One was an older orange tabby that looked like he had been ridden hard & put up wet…..poor thing! So happy I got him! He has probably lived at that plant for years. Vet said he was about 5-6 years old; which is REALLY old for a feral kitty. I call him “Tang Fish” (shown left), which yes, is really a fish!
The 2nd cat I trapped was the mama cat, Sunfish (see below) that I have been following on GPS! Darn it! I didn’t want to re-trap her until I found her kittens! I had to release her….
Please help me raise the money for CRAPPIE, the little black feral that needs all her teeth pulled!!! Any fundraising ideas are GREATLY appreciated! See Update #8 below for details.
Update #7 April 15, 2023 You guys are wonderful & FURR could not exist without you!!! It takes a village as my WONDERFUL volunteers look after the FURR Kitties: Fran, Tony, Patti, Kathy, Laura, Kristy and Lynn.
Still looking constantly for the feral mama cat & her babies. The tracking collar we have on her is working, but she is going into the woods, so I can’t find her. Hopefully the kittens will surface soon & I can catch them, use them as bait to re-catch the mama cat.
Update #6 April 8, 2023 Another late night. Trying to find mama kitty with my GPS collar on! Spent hours today hunting for her in the woods, to no avail….but know she & (hopefully) kittens are nearby. Will NOT give up on rescuing them.
MANY HEARTFELT THANKS THE AMAZING FOLKS THAT HAVE SENT DONATIONS!!!! FURR is beyond grateful & YOU ARE HELPING TO SAVE LIVES!!!
The seafood colony is down to probably a dozen or less cats that need to be saved. Each day more & more of the infrastructure is GONE & the cats have less places to hide & be protected. Pray that I can trap the rest if the cats to save them. I’m doing my very best which is never enough.
Update #5 April 6, 2023 It’s been a harrowing few days….
My sister, Fran, generously came to help me get a GPS tracking collar on the feral, Sunfish (shown left) I had fixed yesterday. The vet said she had kittens & that’s the worst news any rescuer can get. She had just been spayed, so we had to give her 24 hours before releasing her.
Tonight she was fighting us big time & she certainly had reason to, but with Fran’s help we got her in a cat bag, managed to get her head popped out & got the collar on her. I am not as brave as I used to be after the deep bite down to the bone in my hand. I was hospitalized for 10 days, had major surgery & was told I might lose my hand. God healed me & I’m 95% back to normal BUT try to get help now rather than doing it all by myself.
My sister feels for my passion for saving these cats in this colony. After a 10 hr daouy at work as a cardiac nurse, she came to help me. We followed mom cat on the GPS after releasing her tonight & she ran straight for some nearby woods & stopped. We will monitor her movement but hope & pray she is with her kittens and that they are still alive. We will hopefully rescue mom & babies soon. Say a prayer for “Sunfish” and her babies.
Got 4 traps set tonight & keep checking on them. Another long one….
Update #4 April 3, 2023 Terry shares good news in this progress to report –
The 12 cats I have rescued from the seafood colony are doing fairly well in my makeshift rescue shed & pen. I’m so worried about the other ones left out there & I am out trying to trap them tonight. I have 6 traps set & hope & pray for them to let me save them.
Most of the containers & equipment that they have lived under for YEARS is all gone. The cats are aimlessly running around the roads & parking lots. There are at least 20 more I need to save, so as wait and watch these traps tonight I pray for more donations to pay for them to be vetted, treated, then cared for until adopted…
Update #3 April 1, 2023
I would like to thank the folks that have given their precious time to help the FURR ferals. I have re-captured twelve FURR feral cats from the seafood colony & have had them in cages in my garage.
With the help of the following people, I have finally been able to move the cats into a small shed & outdoor pen shown on this page. It is small and far from perfect, but at least they can move around, climb up into the loft area & step outside for some fresh air. This was the best that I could do for now.
THANK YOU & BLESS YOU!
Fran (my sister, adopter, volunteer & my right arm!) Tony (my brother-in-law who has helped numerous times with FURR projects!) Jim (adopted one of our FURR cats “Hooters” & volunteered his time & skills to help!) John – (neighbor who volunteered to help!) Kristy & Jimmy (friends, adopters, fosters & volunteers) Robert (who poured the concrete slab & helped!)
Update #2 March 31, 2023 Many heartfelt thanks to all those who have donated so far and helped to make our cozy new shed happen! Because of your generous donations, these kitties are getting the warmth, safety, care, food and love they deserve.
But there are still a dozen more ferals in need of rescue from a dangerous construction/destruction zone, so Terry is working very hard to rescue them while caring for current FURR kitties.
So here are our current most critical needs:
$500 Rent due
$150 Utilities due
$ 75 Insurance due
$850 Mama Hoover needs a teeth cleaning
$2,400 needed for final dozen feral cats that need to be trapped, rescued and vetted!
We needs lots of food:
Currently feeding 2 cases of canned food a day
Fancy Feast SEAFOOD
Friskees SEAFOOD
Bless you all & Thank you for helping the kitties!
Terry >^,,^<
Update #1 March 8, 2023 Money is trickling in and I am GRATEFUL! We still don’t have enough to catch up or to sustain us, but I was able to pay the rent & other bills that were behind plus continuing, as money comes in, to trap the kitties at the colony.
I have spent night after night trying to re-catch those kitties and it is quite frustrating! I had trapped them all before, got them completely vetted, and put them back in their safe environment with a caretaker feeding them.
Now, they are so “trap savvy” that they do NOT want to go back in the traps! Time is CRITICAL at the moment because of the business leaving, tearing down buildings, taking away all of the containers that the cats have called home for many years. Please say a prayer that I can catch the remaining dozen or so QUICKLY!!!
In total desperation of what to do with all of these cats (over a dozen in small cages in my garage) I purchased a small shed, had it insulated and will use that for the cats to stay protected. At least they can move around a little bit and much better than small cages.
Pouring slab for outdoor space for kitties March 2023
I also bought 2 large chicken pens (see image at the top) and put them together to give them an small outside run. A good friend is pouring a slab for me today to help attach the chicken pens to (see left). I’m doing the best I can and don’t have a lot of money to spend. It has been an ongoing project &and worry for months after learning back in November that the cats were being abandoned.
Wish me luck as I continue to look for the light at the end of the tunnel.
(Still working on a land situation…….will be called “FURR FERALS” & will be the last thing on my bucket list! If I accomplish that, I can die happy!)
Bless you all, Terry
March 1, 2023THIS IS URGENT!!! I have asked for money, donations, food, etc., for years, but now I AM BEGGING FOR HELP!!! There are two major issues going on with FURR that could completely wipe us out. I have a VISION and it could happen, but right now I AM DESPERATE FOR HELP! I feel all alone and that I am failing. I am quickly going down.
FURR ADOPTABLE KITTIES:
We have been lucky in the past and blessed that I had a building I could off the FURR cats up for adoption. I do not have that luxury now and am having to rent a place for the cats to stay. My dear friend (bless her!!!) has given me a commercial office space to house the kitties, but FURR is having trouble making ends meet. We have never had these additional expenses before and now the few donations we get on a monthly basis are gone before I can even buy food. We have vet bills, food bills, litter bills, supply bills, etc., and ALL of that is before these monthly additions:
RENT $500 (1/2 price!)
UTILITIES $150
INSURANCE $75
INTERNET (needed for security) $59
SECURITY (needed in the area where we are) $111
FURR IS NOT ABLE TO KEEP UP! WE DESPERATELY NEED MORE REGULAR MONTHLY DONATIONS TO HELP!!! THIS IS ALL FOR THE KITTIES’ SAKES!!! WE HAVE ABOUT 25 CATS READY FOR ADOPTION AND THEY NEED OUR HELP!
In the last few years here in the Hampstead (north of Wilmington) I have trapped, fixed and released HUNDREDS of cats. One of the biggest colonies has about 40-50 cats. A man has been feeding them & giving them fresh water, but I single handedly trapped ALL of these cats and had them taken care of. This is one of several colonies that I have saved and many of the colony cats (as many as I could take in within limits) were brought to FURR and adopted out.
NOW, THIS LARGE COLONY IN HAMPSTEAD IS LOSING ITS HOME! The property has been SOLD! THE BUILDINGS ARE BEING TORN DOWN, THE PLACES WHERE THESE CATS HAVE BEEN SAFE FOR YEARS ARE SLOWLY DISAPPEARING! ALL OF THE CATS ARE IN DANGER & SOME HAVE ALREADY TAKEN OFF & HAVE DISAPPEARED!
FURR put hundreds of dollars into helping these cats. Many have disappeared.
I am trapping almost every night trying to save them before they run away or get killed in the highway. The colony is directly in the middle of two MAJOR HIGHWAYS….. The cats are NOT wanting to get back into the traps, but I have managed to capture about a dozen so far (over the last 2-3 months), but THESE CATS ARE IN SMALL CAGES IN MY GARAGE! THEY ARE DESPERATE TO GET OUT!!!
I have spent thousands of my own money, to the extent that I can, and I bought a shed with a dog pen to go around the shed. I NEED TO GET THESE CATS OUT OF THEIR SMALL CAGES & PUT THEM IN THIS PEN!!!
I NEED VOLUNTEERS TO HELP! I AM OUT OF MONEY! FURR IS OUT OF MONEY!
ELECTRICIAN came and did not finish. Now doesn’t have time to come back and finish! I need electrician ASAP!!!
THE CONTRACTOR came out and did not finish. Now doesn’t have time to come back and finish. I need a CONTRACTOR ASAP to help me attach the pen to the building and to help me with wire and other things to make it safe for the cats & so they cannot escape.
There doesn’t seem to be anyone that wants to help by donating their time. All of these things cost money and I need VOLUNTEER HELP.
PLEASE, I AM AT THE END OF MY HOPE. I HAVE A VISION FOR THESE CATS, BUT I CANNOT DO IT ALONE. THERE ARE AT LEAST 25 MORE CATS THAT NEED TO BE REMOVED FROM THE COLONY LOCATION BEFORE ALL OF THE CATS ARE DEAD. MY GARAGE IS PACKED. I NEED THE PEN TO AT LEAST GIVE THEM SAFETY AND A LITTLE ROOM TO MOVE AROUND.
I have another project I am working on to get a little land. A very kind doctor is talking with me about it. He is also a cat lover and I have trapped and fixed HIS entire colony of cats behind his office. If I do get use of the land, ALL of these misplaced ferals can live there.
I HAVE A VISION! I JUST NEED TO GET THERE!
THANK YOU ALL AND BLESS ANYONE WILLING TO SEND:
VOLUNTEER HELP
MONEY (WE ARE OUT OF MONEY AS OF TODAY)
DONATED MATERIALS
CONTRACTOR HELP
ELECTRICAL HELP
DONATIONS OF FOOD!!!
LITTER DONATIONS
GIFT CARDS: PETSMART, ACE HARDWARE, WALMART, AMAZON
In between working on these LARGE ISSUES day and night, I have had a few adoptions which are the blessings and light I need to see at the end of the tunnel. As soon as I can sit down at the computer again, I will update you all on those. Wonderful, wonderful homes for our adoptable FURR kitties.
PLEASE POST, FORWARD AND TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW ABOUT THESE 2 SITUATIONS TO HELP FURR! THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS YOU.
