It's not often Kitten Rescue volunteers have social gatherings that do not involve cats in cages, carriers or traps, although we did have a recently rescued cat at the event (more on that story to come). Members of Team Kitten Rescue met up for Meet and Greet #2 at Fleet Feet Sports Encino last Sunday. This meeting focused on Injury Prevention and Trey from Fleet Feet shared helpful information on this topic. The meeting wasn't all about the aches and pain of marathon training though. It was a great time to shop, socialize (with humans) and win raffle prizes! Big kudos goes to Jesec, who won the Swheat Scoop Litter competition.
Team leader Minoo also reviewed the latest scoop (not cat scoop) about the LA Marathon and Team Kitten Rescue's fundraiser on Crowdrise.com, which hit over $10,000 before the end of October! Go Team!
Meet team member, Jesec, feline foster parent and voice actor extraordinaire. Jesec recently celebrated his 35th birthday and in lieu of gifts he asked friends to donated to his fundraiser page. It was a success and as a result Jesec won a year-supply of Swheat Scoop litter which will come in very handy in his household of furry friends. Read his story below!
Hall and Oates. Peanut Butter and Jelly. Cats and Marathons?
I like to run. I like to rescue cats. Much easier to run a marathon to raise money for cats than the other way around, so here we are.
I got started with animal rescue the way I think a lot of Kitten Rescue volunteers do: my tag-team partner Alyssa and I saw a problem with homeless animals in our neighborhood and we decided to do something about it. Our first strategy of paying for everything out-of-pocket and trying to foist animals off on our friends quickly ran into the reality of our pockets emptying and our friends all having plenty of cats. Thankfully, we found Kitten Rescue.
One of the best parts of Kitten Rescue is getting to know the other amazing volunteers, people who understand that if you want a problem solved, waiting around for someone else to come solve it for you isn't going to happen.
There are a lot of animals in bad situations out there through no fault of their own, and I'm proud to be part of an organization of people trying their best to remedy that.
As October winds down to a close and November takes its turn with autumn leaves and cranberry sauce to calm the sugar craze, a new craze is sweeping through Kitten Rescue.That's right folks, it's time to prepare for an elegant display of sleek ebony fur as we parade out our precious black kitties at The Black Cat Event on Saturday November 5th!
The Black Cat Event is a special adoption day put on by Kitten Rescue volunteers to showcase our midnight toned felines in their first time out since Halloween took center stage.As many of you know, black cats are considered to be the hardest to adopt due to their unfortunate stigma and simplistic coloring.This year is going to be amazing as we flood our venues at Canoga Park, Mar Vista, and Burbank with endless lines of rich obsidian cats of all ages and sizes.Rich red decorations will make these black beauties stand out and scrumptious vegan treats will help draw in prospective kitty parents.
Team Kitten Rescue will be sending several of their members to this special event.Lisa Austin, Team KR member, will be bringing out not just 1 but 8 raven colored kittens to the Burbank location.Two are fostered by fellow team member, Cynthia McKeag, who is doing her part by taking their shared non-black kitties to Westchester.Melanie Teller, who is considering running the 5K for Team KR, will also be showing Team KR coordinator Minoo Rahbar's black foster cat at Burbank.Many more Kitten Rescue volunteers are busy working hard gathering decorations, baking up a store, and posting flyers in anticipation of this fun filled event.
Kitten Rescue really is a team effort, from running marathons to adopting out cats.We all do our part to help save as many felines as we possibly can and every dollar we raise goes straight into the animals.Without Kitten Rescue, events like The Black Cat Event would never exist, and many truly magnificent cats would be overlooked in favor of more flashy kitties.Every cat deserves a home and Team Kitten Rescue is dedicated to them all, no matter their appearance or disability.
Elicia started in Kitten Rescue as a Community Foster in 2008 after TNR’ing (trap-neuter-return) the unfixed cats in her neighborhood.After placing the kittens she rescued into loving homes she continued volunteering as a fostermom.Elicia’s motivation to joining Team Kitten Rescue is both exceptional and courageous.Read her story below!
I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer in January of 2011. I found the lump myself in late December, went in for a biopsy - and had to wait until after the holiday for my diagnosis - Happy New Year!! Ugh.
Anyway - I elected to have a bi-lateral mastectomy because I am a high-risk patient. Both my mother and grandmother had breast cancer too. My mother passed away - but my Grandmother is still alive and kicking at 89 yrs old. She is my inspiration - and since we have so many common traits (including fat ankles) - I'm sort of hoping that I get to live a long time like her.
Over the last ten months, I've been through 2 surgeries, 6 months of chemotherapy, and 7 weeks of radiation. I lost all of my hair - and I had GOOD hair. I also lost both of my beloved kitties - Klaus (also known as Meatus) and Miyage. They were very old ladies - but I was devastated to lose them. Without a shadow of a doubt, what got me through all of this is my friends, family - and my husband. I'll never be able to put into words how grateful I am to every single one of them.
After I had completed my therapies - I was looking for a way to get back into life, into shape, and do something that would challenge me in a good way. I also knew that I wanted to adopt another kitty. I saw Leon on the KR website, and reached out to Minoo who was fostering him. She told me his story, and about how miserable he was in her house because he was getting picked on all the time. He was so beautiful and mellow - and I knew that he was going to make a big difference in my life - and he definitely has made my life much sweeter!
While I was at Minoo's house meeting Leon, she pitched me on the idea of the marathon. I was not at all convinced that I could do it- but she assured me that if she could do it (she's a self-professed clutz) - then I could do it. So, I decided to at least give it a shot because I needed the challenge and the Kitten Rescue fund raising aspect was a real motivation for me. Since I was out sick for so long, I had not been able to take on fosters - so I figure that this was a good way to give back to Kitten Rescue and make up for time lost.
I'm in the slowest group right now - and will probably take a day and a half to finish the marathon- but I'm doing really well with fundraising and have already surpassed my personal goal of $1,500.00 - and am now at just over $2,000.00
In past years - I've fostered and adopted out about 15 cats and kittens - and have done temporary ISO for many, many more. I'm thinking about adopting another cat from KR - but it will have to be a very special kitty who will be kind to Leon (he's kind of a whimp) :)
Meet Team Member, Joyce Kao, a Ph.D graduate student at USC. Her passions in life (other than science) are food, cats, and pole dancing. Read her story below!
After going back and forth for a few weeks, I have decided I am going to run the Honda L.A. Marathon on March 18, 2012. What tipped me over? I found out that the animal rescue I volunteer for, Kitten Rescue (http://www.kittenrescue.org/) is an official charity next year. Would I ever run a marathon of my own accord? Probably not, but for kitties, oh yeah! (You can guess the hierarchy in my household) Their little faces and fuzzy bodies just melt my heart and I am prone to do stupid things in the name of helping cats...like run a marathon.
This will be my first ever marathon. I have never run long distances in my life. I wouldn't even classify myself as 'athletic'. My height comes out to a whopping 5' 2" on a good day so you can imagine how short my legs are and what assets I have to carry me across 26.2 miles come next March....but for the kitties and for your support of the kitties, I CAN DO IT! In August 2008, I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to foster cats and the next week joined Kitten Rescue. In the past few years, being with Kitten Rescue has not only increased my knowledge of what it takes to do animal rescue, but has also opened my eyes to the reality of the animal overpopulation problem especially in Los Angeles. Yes, I saw a few cats here and there in my neighborhood, but what I didn't see were the twenty thousand cats being fed into city animal shelters and the half that were euthanized to make space for other incoming animals. This estimate only reflects cats, multiply by two (for dogs) and you have a rough estimate of how many animals die every year in shelters. This number is ONLY in Los Angeles alone.
Kitten Rescue tries to relieve the burden on city shelters one cat (and occasional dog) at a time. They are an awesome organization run by people who genuinely care about animal welfare and they truly deserve every penny donated to them. Since KR is a completely volunteer-run organization, every dollar you donate goes towards saving the lives of less fortunate cats and dogs. To make a contribution to Joyce's fundraiser page go to www.crowdrise.com/joycekao You can also track Joyce's marathon training progress here: http://runforthecats.blogspot.com/)
If you’re a novice runner and have no knowledge of proper running shoes, then it’s probably a bad idea to buy a pair without trying them on…like me.I got a pair online while in my third month of training and it didn’t quite work out as I hoped.I went on a three mile run with Valley Runners and half way through the run my toes started to get numb.By the time I was done I lost most feeling in both feet and had a piercing pain in my right ankle.Needless to say the shoes went back…
Last week I went to Fleet Feet Sports Encino.They’re one of Team Kitten Rescue’s corporate donors and hosted our first Team Kitten Rescue’s Meet and Greet in August.I couldn’t make it to that event, hence the online purchase.They’re hosting another Meet and Greet later this month but I just couldn’t wait any longer to get proper running shoes so I went there and Trey hooked me up with an awesome pair of Saucony…size 9!Did I mention I wear a size 7 ½?There’s a long list of Fit-losphy on proper running wear and supplies that just makes my head spin.All I can say is if the shoe fits, buy it.Thanks Fleet Feet! I’ll see you again on October 23rd for my next purchase...the sports bra! J
A year and a half ago Jess Bowers stopped by a Kitten Rescue adoption venue and fell head over heels with a feral cat named Teddy. As a dedicated supporter of Kitten Rescue and mom to Teddy, Jess joined Team Kitten Rescue in honor of Teddy and those kitties just like him. To make a contribution to Jess' fundraiser page go to www.crowdrise.com/jessicabowers
Just to show our gratitude for your helping us help the kitties, we will send a Team Kitten Rescue water bottle to the next five people who donate exactly $19 to our Team Kitten Rescue fundraiser page. You can either donate to the general team (click here), or to your favorite runner/walker. Ashley, the special needs kitten in this picture (listed in our "Adoption Gallery"), says THANK YOU!!
