“I am excited to be participating in Tree House Humane Society’s Adopt-A-Shelter-Cat Month Challenge.  As part of this challenge, I will be helping Tree House raise $30,000 to help homeless cats.  I will also be working hard to raise awareness of the benefits of pet adoption.  Both Tree House and pet adoption are causes that are dear to my heart, and I hope you will take the time to read my own pet Eowyn's rescue story.  Please help me by donating (any amount will make a difference!) and by forwarding on this link so that others can read about Eowyn and my involvement in this important challenge.  My goal is to raise $1,000 – please help me reach it.  Thank you so much for supporting me and Tree House!”

Eowyn's Story : I currently have four rescue kitties, but this is about my first kitty, Eowyn.

My mother had always been allergic to animals, cats in particular.  Thus, no matter how much I had begged her when I was I child, I had never had a cat.  Since I was now "on my own" I was determined to find a little feline companion, both to fulfill my childhood wish and to ease the loneliness of being in a new city halfway across the country, very far from friends and family.  I had gone on to various websites for area shelters and tried in vain to try and pick a cat to go visit. 

Little did I know.

A family down the street came to visit my room-mate.  In the arms of one of their boys was a bedraggled, crusty little kitten.  They explained that they had adopted her from Chicago Animal Care and Control but that one of the kids was apparently allergic and they didn't want to drive all the way back to ACC to give her back.  Plus, she seemed to have a cold and they were afraid she would be euthanized. Before I even knew it, I was agreeing to take her.  She was about 12 weeks old, still had a shaved spot from her spay surgery, and had possibly the worst upper-respiratory infection I'd ever seen.  Her eyes were almost crusted shut and her nose was so stuffed up she had to breathe through her mouth.  I took her to the vet and got an armload of medicine for her.  For two weeks, she slept on a heating pad on my bed and ate chicken-flavored baby food and water flavored with tuna juice.  After two weeks, she finally began to look and behave like an actual kitten instead of a sickly burrito.  I kept comparing her to a squirrel because of her skinny little body and thick, fluffy tail.

But she still didn't have a name.

ACC had called her Claire according to her paperwork.  The family had tried calling her Skittles.  Neither seemed to fit her.  Then a few weeks after I'd gotten her, a new friend I'd made came over with her dog, a large golden retriever who was training to be a therapy dog and needed exposure to different situations; in this case a house with new people and cats.  At the sight of the dog, my new kitten did the typical Halloween cat stance and danced sideways a little in an attempt to be threatening.  When the dog did nothing but sit there and pant, the kitten launched her self at the dog and wound up clinging to her therapy dog bandana, fluffy tail whipping back and forth.  At this display of kitten ferocity, my friend and I both nearly died laughing.  Since the friend I was living with had two cats of her own named Frodo and Strider (after Lord of the Rings characters), I decided to name my kitten Eowyn after the warrior woman in the same series.

Now, six years and three more cats later, Eowyn is still my favorite fuzzy.  She's grown into a beautiful, long-haired gray tabby who will delicately curl her insanely fluffy tail around my neck or arm when she wants attention.  She loves to show off for the camera and is quite the little princess.  And, true to her name, she is far more bold and brave than most kitties.  If someone comes to the door, she saunters right up to inspect them before allowing them into her domain.

I look forward to many more years with my own furry shield-maiden.

Many cats just like Eowyn wind up in shelters every day; or worse, they are simply thrust out onto the Chicago streets to fend for themselves.  Places like Treehouse, offer these unfortunate cats a safe, healthy place to recuperate and hopefully find a new forever home.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation of $10 or more today.

Here's how your donation can help...

$31 can pay for an initial exam and vaccinations for one abandoned kitten

$54 will cover vaccincations and a spay surgery for a homeless female cat

$124 will pay for vaccinations, treatment of parasites and the spay/neuter surgery for one lucky kitten.

$240 will cover initial exams and vaccinations for ten kittens.

$310 can provide intensive care neccessary for sick newborns.

$510 will pay for initial exams, vaccinations, and spay/neuter surgeries for ten homeless kittens.

$820 will cover the spay/neuter surgeries for twenty kittens.

$1020 provides initial exams, vaccinations, and spay/neuter surgeries for twenty kittens.

But really ANY amount will help!

For PAYPAL options, please contact me directly at redvelvetrose@gmail.com.  Do NOT send paypal payments to that e-mail address however, as that is not the right one.

 

 

About Treehouse : Tree House was founded in 1971 and, for nearly 40 years, we have expanded and enhanced our programs and services to become the largest, cageless, no-kill shelter specializing in the care and rehabilitation of sick, injured, abused, and neglected stray cats. To date we have found homes for more than 15,000 cats, and care for approximately 250 cats on a daily basis. In addition to our focus on the rehabilitation and adoption of stray cats, we offer many other valuable programs and services for dogs, cats and their guardians, including our Low Cost Spay/Neuter Program, Feral Friends TNR Program, Pet Loss Grief Support Group, Humane Investigations Team, Youth Volunteer Program, Animal-Assisted Therapy, Behavior Hotline, Pet Food Pantry, and Education Outreach Program.