Munchkin Madness!

Just a short little Friday afternoon post...I am a bit cross eyed at the moment. I need a good catnap :)! Here are the munchkins I have been working on this week...pigs, frogs, cats, rabbits and elephants in their happy hats and finest frocks. I think they will need to do some sunbathing this weekend in order to get them dried out and ready to paint next week.

I hope all of you have a wonderful July 4th weekend!! We will be having some fun tomorrow night with our friends...pizza and ping pong and maybe a few fireworks. Then, Sunday night, we will be out cat trapping!! Fingers, toes and paws crossed that we get those 3 furry ladies!

Jill, Jenny, the Creek Cats and kitten pics!

What a wonderful day! I have LOTS to be grateful for....especially my wonderful cat loving blog friends! MANY, many thanks to Jill and Jenny for making SnipPet purchases to help with our spaying costs and to Dana at the Creek Cats for blogging about my KittySnips. You guys are simply the B-E-S-T!!! Jill is a wonderful animal lover and rescuer who is involved with her local humane society, and she is also an artist who creates adorable kitty inspired paintings. Check out her blog, Just Me Jill. Jenny is a multitalented artist who makes dolls and other lovely creations. In addition, she is a dedicated TNR advocate who cares for feral cats in her neighborhood. You can follow her trapping and neutering adventures via her Alley Cat Rescue blog. Last but not least, you must stop by The Creek Cats blog. This amazing lady, Dana, rescues cats and kittens in her area in addition to doing a great deal of TNR. Her blog is filled with great photos and fun updates!

Ok, now for a foster kitten update! The two little survivors from last week's rescue are doing beautifully. They finished up their antibiotics yesterday. I can't wait to get them to the vet tomorrow for a follow up and see how much their weight they have gained. I have named the little boy Vinny Van Gogh (Vincent didn't sound right so it's Vinny!). His tail has a little white tip that looks like it fell into a paint can. Vinny was soooo scared and timid at first and now he is a purring love bug. The tiny girl with one eye is Lulu...named for a favorite artist of mine. Lulu is in itty bitty mess of adorableness.

We have a new addition, Miss Meadow. She came from the feral colony that we trapped almost two weeks ago. She is only a few months old and was born without one of her back paws. One of her siblings has the same "challenge", and he is being adopted by the colony's caretaker. Unfortunately, he can't adopt Meadow because he lives in an apartment with a pet limit. Soooo, Meadow is with us for now....it's just too dangerous for her to be outside. She is quite a character. She hisses every time i enter her room, but as soon as i touch her, she starts flipping over and purring non-stop. It's just going to take some time and patience for her to adjust to indoor life. I am taking her to the vet tomorrow to get her all checked out and then, hopefully she can become the other kittens' new roomie. I know she will be happy to have some kitty friends. Once again, i am totally in love with these sweet babies, and I hope i can find extra special homes for them. I am already feeling over protective!

Fundraising to get 3 feral cats spayed!!

Hi everyone!

I am planning on trapping 3 female feral adult cats on Sunday night in order to get them spayed at a low cost clinic on Monday. I usually only trap for the monthly TNR clinic because it is a wonderfully affordable $10 per cat, but i am going to be out of town during the next clinic date and these 3 females cats cannot wait until August! So, i am trying to take the next least expensive route and get them into the low cost clinic here which costs $59 per cat. In order to raise some funds for their surgeries, 100% of the sales of artwork in my Etsy shop between today and Sunday will go toward snipping these kitties! Also, I would like to offer FREE shipping, so i will reimburse shipping costs (it would take me all day to change the shipping on each item, so this is the easiest solution).

Foster kitten photos will be coming soon!! I have a new addition as of yesterday.

In the meantime, our back patio feral boys, Magee and Joe, say hello!

Halloween SnipPet Munchkins!!

I FINALLY have some new SnipPet art dolls to share! I have had lots of creations in the works on my table...it's just taken me awhile to get any completed with all the cat craziness going on.

These Halloween munchkins are little trick or treatin' critters....spooky cute ghouls dressed in their favorite costumes! I really wanted to create some small dolls that reflect my love of vintage toys and retro style. I did some research and made a list of common themes in the styles of old fashioned dolls and toys. Very simple, sweet faces and shapes were a definite detail that needed to be utilized.

I haven't decided where i am going to list them. I had intended to include them in the next Spookytime Jingles update, but i may put them in my Etsy shop and make some more for the update. If any of them strike your fancy, let me know!

So, without further adieu, here are Emmie Elephant, Clara Kitty, Paulie Pup, Rosalie Rabbit and Pippin Pig.

Stockyard kittens update....and a road trip to Atlanta!

One thing is for sure...pet rescue is full of happy endings and tragic endings. Such is life, I guess. I am sad to report that 2 of the 4 kittens we rescued at the stockyards on Tuesday night had to be euthanized yesterday. It broke my heart, and I still keep thinking about them, but I am trying to focus on the remaining two. I am just grateful that none of them had to suffer alone where they were any longer. When I fed the stockyard colony last night, a new adult cat appeared and it all made sense. She is clearly the mom of the 4 kittens. Someone obviously dumped the whole family out there. I just can't believe that any human let them get them get in the horrible state they were in and THEN abandoned them in a dangerous place like that. AND, of course, if that mom doesn't get spayed, it will just happen all over again. I am going to do my best to trap her and take care of it.

One of the 2 surviving kittens will be blind in one eye, but she doesn't mind at all! She is absolutely precious. A tiny 14 oz. ball of sweetness and love. Her happy spirit is amazing considering what she has been through. The other kitten fared the best. He has a runny nose and eyes but no permanent damage has occurred. They are both on antibiotics and eye ointment. They were literally starving to death too. I just can't wait to see them blossom and enjoy a safe, happy life from here on out!! I want to share "before" photos of them so that eventually i can show you "after" photos.




Now for some GOOD news!!!! I am driving Ozzie, Olivia and Odette to Atlanta tomorrow. The Good Mews Animal Foundation is taking them into their fabulous no kill, cage free shelter. As some of you know, i used to volunteer with this group when I lived in Atlanta, and they are still kind enough to help with my rescue kittens and cats when they can. The even better news is that they already have a new dad waiting for them! A wonderful man who adopted 3 cats from Good Mews 17 years ago has lost all of them over the past few years...the last one passed on Friday. He is ready for 15-20 more years with 3 new furkids, and he fell in love with the photos and descriptions of my 3 cuties. I am THRILLED to know that they will stay together and be loved forever!!!!! I definitely needed this purrfect ending :).



I will share some new art next week!! I have 5 new Halloween munchkins completed and 3 Christmas SnipPets almost done. I just wish there were more hours in the day!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Cat Craziness! Trap, Neuter, Return....Raccoons...Kitten rescue

First and foremost, THANK YOU so much for your kind and loving words about my Rosie!! Your comforting thoughts are extremely appreciated.

Over the weekend, we went on a trapping adventure behind a nearby cafe. There are 10 cats and kittens being fed and cared for by the owner of the cafe. He was extremely nice and concerned and desperately wanted help getting them spayed and neutered. We were able to trap 7 of them (and a possum) on Friday night and get them to the monthly clinic on Saturday. Thankfully, 2 of the 7 were the constantly reproducing females!! Yaaaahoo!! I also brought home a tiny kitten to keep him safe while his mom was being spayed. Then, on Sunday night, we headed back out and trapped 2 more (and another possum :)). 9 out of 10 was definitely a BIG success! The remaining cat is a male and was just too smart for us. 2 of the kitties that we trapped are about 4 months old and were both born without one of their back feet. Thankfully, the cafe owner is going adopt them!!!!! He is also adopting the little kitten that we brought home. Yippee!! Here is a photo of the cutie sweet pea....


When i delivered this little boy yesterday, the man at the cafe told me about a couple that needs help TNRing 27 cats at their home. Yikes!!! That is going to take some serious planning and manpower. When is the city going to understand that we need a full service, full time, TRULY low cost spay/neuter clinic??? Well, we just have to take it one step at a time, one colony at a time, one cat at a time.

I have been feeding 3 colonies nearby while their regular caretaker is out of town. One of the locations is in the bushes by a warehouse. There is a mama raccoon and 3 babies who frequent the feeding spot. The other night they came out early and got SO close to me. They are so cute and funny, but i am a bit wary of them!

One of the other colonies is at the stockyards. The 6 cats who come regularly are all bobtails. The orange one is named Mama Snuggs....she had many little snuggs before we came along and "snipped" her last fall!! We have snipped all of the others except one of the torti girls. She has been impossible to trap, but we are going to try again soon.





Last night, while we were feeding at the stockyards, we unexpectedly had to rescue 4 kittens....that is a story for tomorrow. They are in really bad shape, so we are headed to the vet this afternoon. Keep your paws crossed that they will be ok!

OK, i have GOT to get to the art table for a few hours and try to get some work done! See you guys later!

Missing my kitty soul mate.....

The kitty love of my life, Rosie, died on Friday. It was completely unexpected. Apparently, cancer had been growing all throughout her digestive system yet showed absolutely no signs. I still can't believe she is gone, and my heart aches for her every moment. We took her off the streets 3 years ago, and I had hoped to spend many more years with her. No amount of time is enough when it comes to those we love, but I cherish every single memory i have of her. She was one-of-a-kind!

Rosie was the funniest, quirkiest kitty i have ever known. She sat in a buddha position to wash her tummy, and it always made me laugh so hard! She wasn't fat at all, but she had this loose, flappy skin on her tummy that "oozed" around (hence her nickhame, Oozie) and it swung back and forth when she ran. She liked to wash our curtains and my handbags among other things...she would hold them with her paw and lick away. Rosie liked to drape herself over me....literally. It would seem like she was headed over my legs or chest and then she would stop with the front set of paws on one side and the back set on the other and flop down. She would "talk" to me in a different way than other cats. I would say her name and she would rear her body back and respond. Oh, we had so many daily rituals....i just loved having her by my side at all times. The best part was sleeping with her against my chest with my hand tucked into her tummy. We fit together purrfectly. I still can't imagine how anyone abandoned such a treasure, but I am glad they did so that i could get to have her as my best friend. I LOVE YOU SOOOOOO MUCH, my Rosie Oozie girl!

I adore these silly photos. They give me some much needed laughter at this very sad time.