FFARQ Mews Bulletin - Furry Friends Animal Rescue Queensland

Keep your cat cool in summer

12/14/2018

While everyone loves warm and sunny weather, extreme heat is not a welcome feature of the Australian summer. So how can you keep your furry friends cool and comfortable?

Splish splash – it’s easy to dehydrate in heatwaves. Make sure your cat has access to fresh water at all times, and provide extra bowls in case. Ice cubes in the water bowls will help cool them down. Many cats like drinking running water – consider investing in a water fountain or leave a tap dripping slowly for them to drink from. Freezing canned cat food or tuna into ice cubes will also provide a delicious summer treat.

Grooming – matted hair can trap body heat. Make sure you brush your cat frequently in summer to help them shed that extra hair. Brushing with a moist washcloth or paper towel will help cool them down too. If your cat has long hair they may benefit from trimming their belly fur.

Limit activity – Exercise will raise your cat’s core temperature. Play with your cat in the early morning or late afternoon, when its cooler.

Make a cool room – use a cardboard box to create a dark cool spot for your furbabies to hide in. Line the box with dry towels that have been in the freezer overnight. Include bottles of frozen water in the box. They will act like an evaporative cooler and reduce the air temperature.

Airconditioning – if you have air conditioning you may want to leave it running – both for you and your furry friends! If you want to limit the expense, use thermal-lined curtains to keep the heat out, and fans to increase air circulation.

Symptoms of heat stress
As cats aren’t very good at cooling themselves down, heatstroke can rapidly become an emergency condition. Look for these symptoms to tell if your pet is overheating:
Distressed and restless; excessive drooling and panting; unsteady on their feet; lethargy; vomiting and fever. Act fast to cool them down if you see any of these symptoms, and take them to your vet if they don’t improve.

Avoid a Christmas tree cat-astrophe

12/3/2018

Cats love Christmas trees. The sparkly tinsel, fairy lights, shiny baubles and a chance to climb are often too much for any feline to resist. Christmas trees can be a health hazard to excitable kitties and a logging disaster waiting to happen. So how do you cat-proof your Christmas tree?

Choose your tree with care – real trees can be more dangerous than artificial trees because pine needles, when chewed, can cause stomach upsets and cuts to paws and mouths. If you want a real tree, choose a small one, and a variety with low needle drop. Make sure that the base is solid, and cover the water in the tray to prevent your cat from drinking it. An artificial tree with inbuilt LED lights, soft greenery and a sturdy base is safer, as it will cause less damage to your cat and room if your tree takes a tumble.

Pick the purrfect place – Critically assess the location for your tree. Avoid areas with shelves, couches and furniture nearby - anything your cat can use as a launchpad to divebomb the tree. Placing it in the corner of the room can reduce your cat’s access and provide stability if the tree is rocked. Ideally, the room can be close off when you’re asleep or out.

Safe decorating tips – Leave the tree bare a few days before decorating, to let cats adjust to the new arrival. Avoid decorating the bottom of the tree. Place tinsel in the middle of the tree and tuck in the ends towards the trunk, and shinier ornaments at the top, out of harm’s way. Avoid glass ornaments in favour of ones that can’t shatter. Tuck all fairy light cables behind the tree, and if necessary tape the wires to the floor with electrical tape.

Making your tree safe for all the members of your family, including the furry ones, will make the holiday season a lot more enjoyable. Keep your tree upright and your cat out of it, and have a very Meowy Christmas!

Be intrigued by our new kittens!

11/16/2018

The collective noun for a group of kittens is the well-known ‘litter’, the surprising ‘kindle’ (who knew kittens were tech-literate?) and best of all, an ‘intrigue’. If that’s the case, then we’ve certainly been hit by a major conspiracy in recent weeks, with the arrival into foster care of 16 tiny fluffballs.

For those who haven’t been following our facebook page, all the new arrivals are aged around the 8-12 weeks mark, from five different litters. These curious little adventurers are now enjoying their foster homes and exploring their new worlds.

Foster carer Chloe is caring for Noora, who arrived heavily pregnant in late October and had five black and tortoiseshell on her second night in care. Other foster carers are looking after two very active ginger boys, Widget and Sprocket, who arrived snuffily from Kingston Pound, with a bout of flu but have since recovered. There is also Thelma, a black kitten from a Toowoomba animal rescue that assist farmers with their pets and rehoming accidental litters.

Jay and her family heroically fostered (in addition to their other fosters) nine kittens from two litters, dumped in a box at the local pound at just a few weeks old. A mix of gorgeous black, grey, tortoiseshell and ginger kittens, including a very rare female ginger. Seven of these – Coco, Bella, Lady Gaga, Harvey, Ed, Felix and Charlie - are available now for pre-adoption.

When they arrived at their new foster homes in late October, Furry Friends Animal Rescue Queensland spent over $500 in vet consultations, flea and worm treatments and food to get them started on their way. These costs are likely to triple or more in the next coming weeks, as they each need to be desexed, vaccinated and microchipped before they can be made available for adoption. Their adoption fees do not cover these costs in total. So far we have received around $400 in donations from generous supporters in our Name a Kitten facebook campaign. If you want to help please see our donations page.

You can stay up to date with all our kittens’ progress through the FFARQ facebook page. If you are interested in adopting any of these furbabies, be quick! These fascinating felines won’t be available for long.

Felines on the front line: WW1

11/8/2018

A sailor on board the Royal Australian Navy Destroyer HMAS Swan shaking the paw of Ching, the ship's mascot cat.

When we think of cats, we probably picture them snoozing on a sunny windowsill, not serving on the front line in times of war. Yet cats have been as much a part of the military sphere as the domestic one. In combat a cat brings a touch of a normal home life to serving soldiers. Compared to the horrors of war, a cat is a playful, delightful innocent.

It’s estimated that over 500,000 cats were deployed in the trenches in World War 1, and many more were used aboard naval ships. They served a practical purpose along with their mascot role. Cats were used in the trenches as ratters and more unusually, as gas detectors. Cats could detect the smell of gas at much lower levels than their humans, and were an early warning for soldiers to don their gas masks.

On naval vessels a ship’s cat was a serving member of the crew: keeping down the rodent population to protect the human’s food stores, and prevent rigging (and then electrical equipment) from being chewed through. Superstitious sailors often thought of ships cats as good luck symbols as well. They were so well regarded that, on board Royal Navy vessels, the ship’s cat often had their own “cat hammock”.

There are very few recorded names of cats serving with the Royal Australian Navy, but the mascot Ching, of the HMAS Swan (pictured showing typical cat-titude) is one such. Other ship’s cats, including two kittens of the HMAS Borda, and the ship’s cat of the HMAS Encounter seemed to find gun barrels good perches, and all three served with their crews in WWI.

In 1975, the Royal Navy banned pets from all ships for hygiene reasons, which is a sad day for both our feline friends, and all those who may have served with them.

October Adoptions update

11/2/2018

October might be the month of Halloween, but it hasn’t been unlucky for some of our rescue kitties, who have successfully found their furever homes.

Long term foster residents, cheeky Pua, laidback Raz, little Tiger and the divine Princess Molly have all been adopted and loving their new homes.

Our recent arrivals, Celeste with the beautiful green eyes, (anything but) Tiny and Denni have also been adopted. Celeste came to us from another shelter and had only been in our care for six days before being swooped up by a great family.

Tiny came to us with his two sisters, being an accidental litter of their mum Turtle. They were getting too big to be living under one roof and their owners wanted help finding good homes for them. For an eight-month old kitten Tiny is the size of an adult cat, with a sweet and loving personality. Cuddly Tiny was in our care for 13 days, and Denni too was also adopted very quickly. Tiny’s sisters Pip and Blondie have not been so lucky though and are still available for adoption.

We are so appreciative that these cats were able to find their furever homes, and grateful that these families chose to adopt a rescued pet instead of buying an undesexed pet from a back yard breeder. Our aim is to increase the desexed companion pets in the our community and reduce the number of undesexed cats reproducing uncontrolled in our community and becoming feral.
Thanks in particular to our sponsor partners Pets Pool and Produce and PetBarn Ipswich, for hosted them at their stores and being a major contributor to their speedy adoptions.

Would you like to adopt a kitty? Check our Adopt us page for cats currently in foster care. If you would like to share the love but cannot adopt long-term find out how you can become a foster carer. Alternatively, we have many furbabies that need some extra help before they get their new life chances if you wish to donate. Every dollar we receive goes to the medical care and rehoming of all our foster cats.

Are black cats unlucky?

10/24/2018

Black cat sits on a colourful couch

Along with the ghouls, ghosts and things that go bump in the night, nothing says Halloween more than black cats. But how did black cats come by their undeserved reputation?

It seems that black cats were an unlucky bystander of the spread of Christianity throughout Europe in the Middle Ages. Cats have long been associated with pagan customs and old gods, such as the Egyptians and the Roman goddess Diana. Christianity demonised the existing religion or altered pagan festivals to celebrate Christian themes.

When Pope Gregory IX declared black cats to be the incarnation of the devil in 1233 AD, Christians killed black cats at village festivals to punish them for their supposed devilish ways. By the 14th century, cats were nearly extinct in Europe.

Over the next few centuries, black cats were thought to be in league with witches as their ‘familiars’, or were even witches in disguise. Just owning a black cat during the witch trials of the 16th and 17th centuries was enough to condemn a ‘witch’ to death.

Even now, black cat superstitions still linger – a black cat crossing your path is considered unlucky. However it's generally the cats themselves that suffer bad luck. Research has shown that it takes four to six days longer for black shelter cats to be adopted than cats of any other colour. As every cat owner knows, the only unlucky thing about a black cat is you can’t see them in the dark, which often means you trip over them on a midnight run to the bathroom.

In some countries, particularly in Asia, black cats are thought to help you be lucky in love and wealth. In Japan single women who own black cats are believed to have more suitors, and in the English Midlands, a black cat is seen as in ideal wedding gift for the bride. In Scotland, a black cat arriving on your doorstep signals prosperity and good luck. Especially for the cat.

Furry Tales - Hannah's Story

10/23/2018

Hannah is a bit shy at first but is certainly coming out of her shell! She loves a good play with her toy mouse and ball track. With the right family, she will be fit right in.

After being found by the side of the road in the bush with her mum Freya and sibling, she was impounded but unfortunately was not claimed by any owners. The family were due for euthanasia when we took them in. Hannah's sister, being outgoing and confident, was quickly adopted, while Hannah and her mum Freya are not so lucky.

Since that day on the side of the road, Hannah has come leaps and bounds. From a scared kitty hiding in the corner under the bed, hissing and growling at other cats, she is now improving each day.

'She is now waiting at the door when I come home from work', said her foster mother, 'and plays tag racing through the house with my other cat'.

Hannah has a beautiful nature and is waiting for her furever home. Find out more about her on our Adopt us page.

Tick off flea protection

10/23/2018

Spring brings the warmer weather but it also comes with less welcome guests – ticks and fleas. You may think that your cat being indoor-only would be protected from parasites but this is often not the case.

Feral cats and other animals, such as rats and dogs, roaming through a neighbourhood can easily spread fleas and ticks through backyards and under your home. Even human visitors can bring them in on their clothing or shoes.

To reduce the risk of infestation, make sure you keep your garden tidy and consider using beneficial nematodes or pyrethrum to reduce fleas outside. Make sure your cat can’t reach or eat any plant that has been sprayed. Non-toxic treatments for inside your house include dusting, vacuuming, mopping and regularly washing your pet’s bedding. Spraying the inside of your vacuum cleaner with tea tree oil will help kill any fleas you vacuum up and keep your pets safe from exposure.

If you want to reduce the use of chemical insecticides, a cheap and effective way is using aluminium barbeque trays. Fill the trays halfway with soapy water and put a tealight candle on a stand in the middle. Place these trays in various rooms overnight and light the candles. The candle light attracts the adult fleas who drown in the water. Make sure you don’t have children or inquisitive pets who can disturb the trays!

Finally treat your cat with a flea treatment or comb them daily with a flea comb. You can find effective flea and other parasite treatments at pet stores or your local vet.