This is just a wild suggestion, as I know you're against shelters, but are there any "No-Kill" shelters, or cat rescue missions in your area? Kali and Shera seem like they'd be adopted immediately as they're both sweethearts (especially the hugger!).

And yes, pictures please!

Photos are coming, but the move is kinda getting in the way.

I know there are no-kill shelters, but I couldn't possibly imagine putting my cats into a cage. Plus, how long do they keep the animals until they send them to a kill shelter?

These cats are my family, and it's extremely difficult to give them away in the first place, but I'll die if they're put into a cage somewhere.

Hi Liz, I volunteer at the Arizona Animal Welfare League, or AAWL. It's a no-kill shelter. What does that mean? Well, it means that if the animal is adoptable, we don't euthanize them, no matter how long they've been there. Adoptable in this case means healthy physiologically and psychologically. One of my cats had been at this shelter for a a year before I rescued her. Additionally, our shelter will "take back" an animal if for whatever reason the owner no longer wants them or is able to take care of them. Finally, in our shelter the cats are kept in rooms and are able to freely roam into an outdoor enclosure or around the room. They do keep the rooms closed and separated from others so as to prevent the spread of disease. All three of my cats are from this shelter, and I take a lot of comfort knowing that if anything happened to me, they would still have a caring environment to go back to. If I ever lost my home or my ability to take care of them, they would still have a home. Not all shelters are the same, so you might have to look around if it came to it. I wish I could take one of your kitties, but I just can't take care of anymore kitties in my condo.

I can take on one of the kitties. It'd be nice to see if we click first, but I understand if that doesn't work out with the move.

So, we finally got around to taking photos of the kitties, so I figured I'd post 'em here.

• George
  
  This is one of Shera's two kitties that we're giving away. He's got kind of her longish hair, and we initially named him George because he was the most curious of her kitties. (This was before we knew we were going to have them for any length of time, or we would have given them better names.) Both of the kittens have extremely good temperaments, and get along very well with all people. Again, never had them swipe or get angry at all. Not really in their nature.
• Vash
  
  This is the other kitten. He's got short-medium hair, and we named him Vash (really, it should be Vache) because he looked like a cow with his coloring - he's spotted all over. Also very friendly. The second photo was just him being ornery when we were trying to take his picture.
• Shera *Shera found a home on 11-6-09
  
  The mama cat. As Deacon said, "Shera is freaking awesome. If I were to get a cat, I'd want Shera or a Shera clone." She's the easiest cat in the world to take care of. She's not destructive, she doesn't actively dislike any of our other cats, and all you have to give her besides food and water is a lap, 'cause boy howdy will she use it. She's not indifferent to your presence like most cats can tend to be... she just wants you to love her. Someone has expressed interest in Shera, so far.
  Kali Kali has a potential home.
  
  Kali's the quiet one. Right now she's a little skittish because the kittens have been giving her such a hard time, but when she gets alone with you she opens up and just wants you to love her. She's apparently up sitting on Liz' desk right now, actually. Anyway, she really needs to be the only cat in the household, because she has kind of a "persecuted cat" syndrome and will always be submissive to other cats in the home. The last 2 houses she's been in, the other cats in the home have chased her and fought with her, and she really just needs to be alone. Someone has also expressed interest in Kali.

I only note that people have expressed interest in Shera and Kali because we really need to find homes for all four cats, and the two kittens are really great cats. (Kittens is only because they're less than 2 years old... they're basically cats. Just with a little more energy than older cats. ) Nobody has actually picked anyone up yet, though, so they're still here.

Kali has most-likely found a nice home in Santa Rosa.

I wanted to add a few things.

Kali was born at my parent's house. For awhile there, they had an outdoor stray that kept giving birth under their house. So they would gather up the cats and give them homes. Kali was from the last litter before my parents caught her and spayed her. She was given to my niece. When my niece moved out of the house, she had three other cats. One of her cats took on a hatred for the other female of the house and started to beat up on her. So much so, that she ended up living on their fridge. That's when she was given to us. We flew her back to Texas with us two Christmases ago and she nearly tore the bag apart (hence the name Kali) because we drugged her and she was nervous on the plane.

After getting home, she pretty much kept to herself until one day when she decided to be a part of the family. She began to walk into our office and actually stand-up and tap on my leg with her paw because she wanted attention. Then when that stopped working, she would hop up on my desk. She was actually a pretty happy cat and tried really hard to be a part of the family.

Cue the birth of the kittens in March of 2008. (March 18th, to be exact.) We were ok in Texas, but after the move back to California, they started to chase her. Mostly, she slinks around the house, they think she's trying to play and they chase her. Well now, they'll chase her if they see her or just go sit by her because they want to pester her. She doesn't feel comfortable with them doing that, so she'll growl and hiss. This makes them attack her. This has been going on for several months.

A few months ago, we realized it wasn't safe to leave her out with the kittens, so we started to put her in a bathroom at night, and she seems extremely happy with that arrangement. We bring her out during the day though.

Some quirky things about Kali: She has the sweetest little meow that you'll ever hear. When she is really happy, she drools a little. So if you hold her while petting, you might end up with a damp shoulder. =P She also has goofy little fangs that always stick out the front of her mouth. She reminds me of what the cat looks like in the Flinstones because the fangs are predominant against her black fur. She also has the brightest yellow eyes I've ever seen on a cat.

Kali was last given her rabies shot when we got her 2 years ago. She had all of her shots up until that time. She was fixed when she was very young.

George is a character. When he was a kitten, he was the first to venture out of the mud room, and was always the one to get into trouble first. (Not really trouble, more like mischief.)

George has his mother's good looks. As he grew up, I always thought that he looked like Simba from the Lion King. His snout is a little bit longer and he has a lion-like quality about him.

At first, we thought we wanted to keep George, but Selphie (the chihuahua) and Stupid are best buddies and we couldn't break up a friendship like that. George's personality is aces though. He listens when he's being punished, and if you call his name and tell him to do something, he'll do it!

He's the one that looks like he's wearing baggy Russian pants with tall boots because his feet are so petite and the hair flairs away from his body at the second joint. Greg calls them parachute pants, but I think it's more like something you would see from the bottle scene of Fiddler on the Roof.

With all of the kittens, I wanted to make sure that they were neutered at a very young age so that they wouldn't spray. I hate spraying (who likes it?) and I knew that you had to do it by a certain age. Well we asked the vet how long we should wait and then did it as soon as we could. So neither of them spray AT ALL.

My little cow-kitty, Vasche. He is my little sweetheart. I adore this little cat... really I do. His big eyes look up at you, and you're sold. He's not fat, just built rounder than the other cats, but that makes him look like a chubby little kid.

You can't see it in these pictures, but all of the kittens have pink little pads on their paws. (Shera has the best ones though.) Vasche actually has black and pink... it's adorable.

His personality is the quietest. He plays and jumps, but is more reserved. He looks before he leaps and is more likely to hide when he hears the doorbell ring. But he makes up for it by really wanting to spend time with you and to sit by your side. He also likes sun beams. Boy, he loves to soak 'em up!

Shera found a loving home today. I'm sure she'll be extremely happy with her new owner.

OK, so when I met Shera, she was the most loving kitty I had ever met. She wanted attention and affection and she wanted it NOW! hehe. She was an outdoor cat who was apparently abandoned by the previous owners of the house. The neighbors said that she had been around for awhile and they couldn't figure out who would leave such a sweet and companion-worthy cat.

As I was sitting outside one day, I looked over at her and her name popped into my head. "She-ra". She is the most beautiful cat I've ever seen, with the most gorgeous features. And I thought "she's white, beautiful, and strong... just like Princess She-ra" and we started to call her that. After closer inspection, we saw that she had a cute little pink nose, and cute little pink pads that were contrasted by this beautiful white fur. She is breath-taking actually.

In Texas, the thunderstorms can get pretty brutal, and one day we saw Shera run across the street to find shelter when one big crack happened. We felt bad for her, so Greg ran outside (in the rain) and grabbed her to put her in the mud room. After that, every time there was a storm, we would run outside to find her and bring her in.

We were adamant about not collecting anymore cats though. So we would just feed her and called her "our outdoor kitty". We started to notice that she was gaining weight pretty quickly but we thought it was because we were feeding her too much. Then Greg noticed that her tummy felt hard and her nipples were protruding. He rushed inside to tell me that he thought she was pregnant. My heart sank. I couldn't possibly allow her to give birth in our yard and then have a BUNCH of outdoor, feral kitties to deal with. So I had Greg bring her inside and I felt her belly. Just then, a little body inside began to move. Yup, she was pregnant. So we took her to the vet the next day to make sure that she was healthy and to find out how much longer she had. The vet said she had about a week, maybe. In shock, we ran home to prepare our house for kittens. About a week later, two days before our wedding anniversary, she went into labor and had 4 gorgeous little kittens. (Photos of their birth, here: http://www.reallifeforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=802050#p802050)

Shera is the best cat in the world. She is a perfect companion because she pretty much just wants to be in your lap and hug you. If she gets pet, she's happy, but it's not a requirement. She also like the sun and loves to roll around on her back. He hair is UBER soft too, and never gets matted. (We've never had to take her to a groomer and have never shaved her. Same with George.)

After she gave birth and was finished nursing, we had her spayed. One, she was super annoying because she went into heat right away, and two, we didn't want her to get out and make more babies.

Her teeth are in really good shape, so that makes me believe that she's only a few years old. She looks fat, but it's all hair. She's really puffy! She does shed a bit, but if you brush her every once in awhile, you'll never notice. Plus, she likes the attention. =P

I'm sure there must be SOMETHING that you could caption the third pitcure with, but I'm racking my brain and not coming up with anythin

Lizzegirle wrote:Plus, how long do they keep the animals until they send them to a kill shelter?

As long as necessary. No-kill shelters would never send their animals away to a shelter that isn't also no-kill. That kinda defeats the point.

That said, I can totally understand not wanting to send them to a shelter, no-kill or not.


Powers &8^]

I or my parents actually might be able to take one of the boys. My daughter and I have two girl kittens (sibling strays, almost two yrs old) and/or my parents have three young boy cats (also sibling strays, around 5 yrs old). Either set is about as non "feline" as you can get - they're all more like lapdogs with absolutely no dignity when it comes to food (any food, doesn't even have to be edible). They're all incredibly social as well to both people and animals.

I'm adament about cats being indoor and no de-clawing (though I do trim their nails with clippers). We're local (Carmichael) but I horse-back ride out near MEC in Rancho if that helps.

Are the boys alright around dogs and small children?

Yeah - they're great around pretty much everyone. I've never had them hiss or attack, really. We have a little dog that they get along GREAT with... never seen them with big dogs, but I don't see why they would be problematic.

That's great, though! You're welcome to come by anytime and meet them... just pardon the mess. We're moving, after all. Send me a PM with when you can come on by and I'll give you directions and whatnots.

I´d take one if you can Fedex it overnight

My sister also has one of those sabretooth cats. Upper fangs always hanging out. Looks wacky.

Greg Dean wrote:Yeah - they're great around pretty much everyone. I've never had them hiss or attack, really. We have a little dog that they get along GREAT with... never seen them with big dogs, but I don't see why they would be problematic.

Yeah, I meant to write "larger" dogs on that post I'll pitch the idea to my parents, see if they have room for one more and at the same time figure out my own capacity. PM you soon!