Monday, Jan. 9

Something new and very exciting will be happening soon! The new website is almost ready for your viewing and I guarantee that you will love it! More about this real soon. TODAY is the day to start voting! It's a new year, so the slate is clean. We could possibly win the state at $1,000 or possibly the grand prize again at $5,000. Please vote at tinyurl.com/ffrcvote Our votes will add up!

We had an adoption yesterday. Cinnabon went to his new home. He will be well pampered. That makes 5 adoptions so far this month. Our 3 new little ones are doing great. They have names! The black one is Jacen. The brown tiger is Annakin. The brown tiger/torti is Jaina. These names came from Tommy and are Star War names.Won't be long until these kittens are running with the rest of the cats.

We have had a lot of visitors lately--something we enjoy and the cats certainly enjoy also. After all, more people means more petting!
Jobo--sent 2 cases of cat food
Catlady (who adopted Haskins) sent a big box with the crinkle paper that's really a toy, a big bed, and 2 beautiful garden art pieces. She also never comes without some goodies for us to share!
Michlynn and Siamesemich sent appetizers, fancy feast, rug, cat treats, q-tips, and an envelope with a donation.
Medic/Laura--2 boxes of fancy feast

During this extra busy time for me, with my Dad and Steve's knee surgery, forgive me if I get behind on thank yous and e-mails. My dear friend Kate flew in yesterday as a total surprise to me. She is here this week while my family and I are extra busy. She will also be transporting Dhana and Weasley to Bryan this week for their physical for their airplane trip. I'd also like to say thank you for your prayers and good wishes during this difficult time for my family.

One of the reasons I may be disorganized this week is I have lost some of my notes. I keep finding them on the floor all chewed up. Today I discovered who is doing this--Hettie! I've asked her to not do this, but we'll see. Something tells me she is not going to listen! Ayla was playing with another kitten yesterday--very nice to see. Emaline thoroughly groomed Weasley, head to tail. Asha's new nickname is LoveBug. One of the biggest lapsitters here is Pawsome--he loves attention. Please remember to vote!

Jan. 7 Saturday

The cats are super excited this morning. My sister Judy always brings them hambones when they hav a ham meal. The kittens and cats LOVE this! What at first looks like alot of meat on that bone, quickly becomes just a bone! Keeps them entertained for a long time. Cinnabon and Picasso are now my new desk friends. They insist on learning typing skills which makes my typing much slower--but they have fun. Poor Putter has a bit of a tummyache. We are treating him and hopefully he'll be feeling better today. Twinkle is looking good and has a great appetite. Sari also knows how to eat good--her normal is to have 2 breakfasts! Holly is at the moment sleeping on the big hammock that is in Dodger's Pen. Those 2 hammocks have become favorite napping areas.

Lots of changes are happening at the Rescue Center. Soon you will be able to see the new website-how very exciting. I believe you all will be thrilled! Many many dozens of hours have gone into it. We will also be meeting soon for our first Advisory Board. This is designed to take a little workload from me. Jan. 30th is still the scheduled date for the beginning of the new floor. I actually took 2 pieces of floor away from Kiara--she was walking around with chips in her mouth. Not eating them, just carrying them around.

Year end stats are done.

From 1/1/11 to 12/31/11 (12th year)

Incoming: 252 Adopted: 218 Died/Euthanized: 10 Neutered: 184
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Grand Total from 9/1/11 to 12/31/11

Incoming: 2789 Adopted: 2447 Died/Euthanized: 190 Neutered: 1819
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We had BOXES and ENVELOPES last night! (Last night was special for me. Not only did my sister Nancy help me with putting away the gifts, but my mom was here also. She needed a break from things and wanted to watch box opening!)


BOXES
DeEtte--case of Pate Friskies
David, Bonnie, Michael--scratcher and lounger, card, blanket, clorox wipes, mice toys, 3 bags of treats, 2 boxes of Whiskas and lots of pillow cases
Jatcat--colored paper, 3 bags of kitty treats, sharpie pens, tape, hammock tunnel and condo
anonymous--case of seafood classic fancy feast
Tom P, Buddy & Ashely, card and soda tabs for Kellen
Cobbis--3 cases of Friskies--pate and filets
Petco anonymous--4 cases of friskies filets and fancy feast appitizers

PACKAGES
William 1--whole bag of various toys
Dorothy Y--videos of our Animal Blessing we did (so we can add to our new utube!)
anonymous--metal coils (already being played with)
Mike B, Sharon, Angelkitty3--check for 4 floor tiles

CARDS
Beth P--donation for FFRC
Titans--card for my dad
cjcat--card for my dad
Penn.--card for my dad
Mr. & Mrs. VS--card for my dad
Andrea A--card for my dad
Cathline--donation for FFRC

We also received a beautiful letter from our friend Hannah and her parents Jennifer and Andy!

Thank you all for your support. It is gracously received here at the rescue center. You all make a BIG difference for us. We will continue doing what we love to do--running the rescue center. We also love sharing the cats and kittens with everyone.

Jan. 5 Thursday

We had TWO adoptions yesterday! Wiffin went to his new home. He's going to be the sole attention of a lady who has been so excited to adopt him! Birka also went to her new home yesterday. She went to a new dad that has been wanting a shoulder-riding cat. You all know how Birka loves to shoulder ride! The people that helped us yesterday were: Jodi, Mary E, Stacey, Jimmy, Gregg, Judy E, Connie. Extra thanks to Jodi and Linda T for giving more of their time for the rescue center while I have been so busy with my family matters. It has now been 20 weeks since Farrah has had a seizure. I'm so happy for her! Maybe we'll be able to get her a home of her own yet! Little Hannah was playing with a stuffed mouse this morning, yowling and yowling at it--fun to watch. Sari is getting so brave--she's exploring everywhere now.FiFi went way up high this morning on a catwalk and had to be rescued. She then got some hugs. Putter is doing good. He got the "poodle cut" on his feet this week. It helps alot to keep his paws clean of litter.

We had BOXES last night! So nice and fun and appreciated!
Dorothy & Tony (wacats)--2 cases of Friskies Chicken Liver Pate
Anonymous--1 case of Friskies Seafood Pate
Jill R (jillr27)--4 cases of Friskies and 1 case of Gerber Chicken baby food
DeEtte--3 cases of Friskies
Irene (ladydoc)--7 cases of Fancy Feast
Maggie (magspa)--2 GIANT cases of Friskies
TheTexas3-big bag of pop tabs for Kellen
Dave (who adopted Birka)--a card and 2 cans of Sardines
Bill & Dawn S (volunteers) & their cats--Chief receipts and a donation

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the donations. Our food supply cabinet is full again! The cats and kittens were ever so grateful too!

Jan. 4 Weds
Soon, the blogs will be more consistent and thru our new website for all to see more easily! Big changes are happening with our new site--check it out daily to see the progress. The new website is fofrescue.org We have many people participating in the rebuilding, but one friend in particular-Lenz is his chat name. Volunteers are busily taking awesome pictures to add to the new site, Eric is working on videos, lots of ideas coming in. When my time permits, I want to add the story of how FFRC began.

The cats and kittens here are all doing great. Cosimo is out and about more--actually he's here in the office with me right now! Peverley is playing with one of the new wool toys. Cinnabon is stretched out here on the desk making him look 3 feet long. Tweeney is busy dragging a feather toy about and pretending it's alive. Zelda is snoozing away in my lap while Ernestine is on the cat furniture watching the kittens play. All is well! The people that helped us yesterday were Judy S, Judy M, Stacey, Paul, Caity, Dorothy, Dee, Martha L, Brenda. Dee took Tasco home yesterday for a trial run. Will keep you posted. I've heard from Jolly and Adora's new owners. Both are doing great. Georgia and Dunakin were playing full steam yesterday--lots of energy chasing each other back and forth. Raza and her boy Telo frequently take naps together--very sweet to see.

We had ENVELOPES last night!
Sweetp727--sent a card for Twinkle that included a tiny, adorable cane and a donation for her. Twinkle loved it!
Irene B from Batavia, NY--sent a card, cash donation, pic of her cat Sneakers and 2 cats of a friend of hers (Tigger and Dora). She also sent the most wonderful letter from her cat Sneakers!
Paddy sent a letter from his World Tour. He's in S. Hampton, UK now and he told us about the many thingss he was seeing and doing.
Letter from Nuki-Master and Sabrina T Cat--enclosed was a transcript of a hilarious phone conversation between these 2 goofy cats! This is a letter I will save forever! These 2 cats belong to 2 wonderful webcam viewers--Nuki-mom and Cantoncat.

Thanks to everyone for your support. You ALL are an important part of this rescue center.

Jan. 2 Monday

What a huge, wonderful surprise I had yesterday. We have the floor work to begin on Jan. 30th. I had to commit to a date due to the time it takes to get the color we wanted for the new floor and to reserve a HUGE trailer to put all the rescue center's furniture in. The cost is $9,600. The money we won for the PetFinder site is reserved for the floor which left us with almost $5,000 left to raise. Unknown to me, the webcammers SOLD the floor! Yes, sold the floor! The floor was divided into square feet and sold for $14 a square. All the squares were sold, which gave the rescue center a money amount of $5,000. I was completely unaware that this was going on (due to the surprise FFRC facebook). And I truly was shocked, surprised and bursting with gratitude! I've said it before and I still say it again. This rescue center has the most compassionate, giving people anywhere. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. One less thing to worry about! We truly have made friends all over the world and have become a cyberspace family together. Thank you.

FYI: my dad is not doing well, so I will be even more involved with his care. Please be patient if I'm not here as much or get behind on e-mails. We also have the best volunteers in the world as they will do a terrific job while I'm absent.

Sunday Jan. 1

Happy New Year to everyone. We had a wonderful Happy New Year's party from the cats to all the webcam viewers. At 4:30 we unveiled a Happy New Year tree--full of shiny glittery things and paper chains. The cats of course proceeded to dismantle it, which was perfectly fine. The cats also had a BIG sign they wanted us to hold up to the viewers thanking them for their support. There was plenty of catnip and bonito flakes to go around. We even got the bubble making machine out and had bubbles going everywhere. Needles to say, the cats and the humans all had fun!

Adora was adopted yesterday--she went to a home where the people were so excited about having her. The new big orange/white cat now has a name. It's Cosimo (means universe, harmony in Italian). He will be leaving Thumper's Room today and coming into the main area, probably going into Patience's Pen for a day or two.

Update on the Paddy World Tour. He is still in the UK for one more visit then will be traveling abroad to a new location. He has made 11 stops so far.

Keep an eye on the new website for the rescue center. fofrescue.org New things are happening daily to it!

We had a BOX last night. Thank you so much for your support.
Annette S from Campbell OH--a grilling cookbook for Steve, a gift for ohiomrspeepers, a t-shirt for me that said "Faces of Animal Rescue" with lots of cute cat pics all over it. Also included were many 2012 calendars for the volunteers. I know the volunteers will appreciate this also.

ENVELOPES/PACKAGES
Jatcat--sent 2 letter openers. These are wonderful--opens those envelopes with no problems!
Linda M & Gloria from Atlanta GA--sent a card with coupons for free litter
Joan/jowlee in Maryland--sent a wonderful card and a donation to be used in any way we need (she lost her 2 year old cat recently)
Wldfire--sent a card to Steve and one for me

Steve asked me to pass on his thanks for the birthday cards that he's received. He was so surprised! Very nice of you!

December 31, Saturday

Happy New Year! Tonight is the last night of this year. We're ready for the incoming year! Soon we will have totals added up--the incoming cats, how many adoptions we've had, how many spays/neuters we've done, etc. We'll be sure to post all this information up for you. We have another date to keep in mind. Our floor guy arrived and we've picked Jan 30th to start the new floor in the main area, 3 rescue rooms and the storage room. This will give us time hopefully, to finish raising the amount of money neeed yet. As you may know, we received our $5,000 check from PetFinders! It's been deposited and saved for the floor! How exciting. We did not do boxes last night or envelopes as I was picking up my sister Patti from the airport. Many of you also know that if we have boxes to open at 6:30, the Blue B will show. If there are no boxes, but we have envelopes to open, you will see a green E. This E and B are to the left of the working counter. We had 3 adoptions yesterday! Chaplin went to a new home with a wonderful new Dad. KW was adopted to the family that has adopted Nebraska. They were so excited about taking KW home! Punkin was also adopted--I know he will be very spoiled. We also took in a new cat that was found at Lowe's. He got inside the store and was ever so happy to be with people. He's a gold/white, already neutered and declawed front. His name is Cosimo.

The 2 new kittens now have their pen door open. FiFi is already exploring already and doing great. Ayla is also doing great. She hasn't ventured out yet, but I'm sure she will soon.

The first part of January I will show everyone the remaining t-shirts that we have left, just in case you are interested!

Now, on to the new year! We look forward to what 2012 will bring the rescue center. We have much to be thankful for. It's been a week since the episode last Saturday. We are choosing to not dwell on the past, but to look eagerly forward to the future. We are so blessed and have you all as a wonderful support system. I'm grateful. Keep an eye out for all the new computer happenings! Within a very short amount of time, our new website with many links will be ready! Happy New Year to everyone!