Betty and Butch

Look at that face!  Betty and Butch came to Black Cat Rescue at only a day old with their Mom, a beautiful black cat named Bailey. 

Within a few days, we got a call from another local rescue who had an orphaned kitten the same age as Betty and Butch.  His siblings had passed away, and he was fading.  So, the whole family went off to the other rescue, and Bailey successfully nursed the little orphaned kitten into a healthy little bundle of trouble.  Ironically, Tawney looks much more like Bailey than her own kittens!  Can’t you tell he’s a handful?

Both Tawney and Bailey have been adopted.  Unfortunately, Butch and Betty were both diagnosed with heart murmurs (level 2 and level 3).  They have come back to BCR, and we are working with our vet to determine what they need.

Send good thoughts for these little guys as we sort it all out!

Scratchy and Atticus go home!

Scratchy and Atticus have gone to a wonderful forever home together.  Scratchy is now Boo, and Atticus is keeping his name.  Atticus required lots of TLC during his transformation from baby feral to the sweet, confident young man he is today.  He is already bonding with his new family and loving the life of pampered house kitty.  Congratulations little boys!

Ciao Meatball!

Meatball found a great forever home this weekend.  He gets to be an only kitty, and he will have all the head scratches he can handle!  He is already getting in some snuggle time with his new person.  Congratulations to Meatball!

Lyuba Looking for Love

Lyuba is getting her beauty sleep in case she has a visitor soon.  Trying to find “the one” is exhausting!  Lyuba has been looking for months, even though she is quite a catch.  She is pretty, loving and calm- even likes dogs!

No Kill Conference: Effective Leadership with Susanne Kogut

This session with Susanne Kogut, the Executive Director of the open admission No Kill Charlottesville SPCA, discussed the importance of quality leadership on behalf of homeless pets.  A few standout quotes…

“Excellence is not an accomplishment.  It is a spirit, a never-ending process.” -Laurence M. Miller

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.” -Winston Churchhill

“People who don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.  People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” -Peter Drucker

“Leadership has been defined as the ability to hide your panic from others.” -Anonymous

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” -Stephen R. Covey

“Hell, there are no rules here– We’re trying to accomplish something.” -Thomas A. Edison

And, of course….

“Unless someone like you cares an awful whole lot, nothing is going to get better.  It’s not.” -Dr. Seuss

No Kill Conference: Using the Law to Save Lives with Richard Avanzino

Check out Sido’s story from way back in 1979!

“The lessons learned from saving Sido- that people could care about one animal’s life so much- raised the bar on what we thought could be done to save more dogs and cats.” – Rich Avanzino

No Kill Conference: Turbocharging Pet Adoptions with Bonney Brown

“Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

Bonney Brown, the Executive Director of the Nevada Humane Society shared some great tips to help shelters and rescue groups place more pets in loving homes!

This session got us really motivated to set some truly inspiring goals!

It’s also so important to make time to celebrate victories!  Seeing our cats happy in their forever homes really revs us and our supporters up to work harder.

Some of the tips were pretty basic, like smiling and being friendly toward adopters.  During a hectic kitten season, we can all use a little reminding.  🙂

Making it easy to fall in love…

Create a welcoming atmosphere.

Encourage interaction.

Create success by looking for ways to make adoptions work, not reasons to turn people down.

Convenient times- weekends, evenings and holidays.

Increase exposure with adoption events.

Facilitate bonds.

Offer special prices for special pets.

Keep process user-friendly!

Aggressive Promotion– Get the word out and get people in!

Some great holiday twists to promote adoption- keep your New Year’s resolution to stress less by adopting a cat, find love on Valentines Day, festive dress for Mardi Gras,  feel lucky on St. Patrick’s Day,  get a free tree with your Arbor Day adoption….endless possibilities!

No Kill Conference: Building a No Kill Community with Nathan Winograd

After an incredibly inspiring welcome and keynote, we headed to our morning session to learn how to build No Kill communities.  We learned about the history of animal sheltering and how to brighten the future for our nation’s homeless pets!

NO KILL EQUATION

Feral Cat TNR Program

High-Volume, Low-Cost Spay/Neuter

Rescue Groups

Foster Care

Comprehensive Adoption Programs

Pet Retention

Medical and Behavioral Rehabilitation

Public Relations/Community Involvement

Volunteers

Proactive Redemptions

A Compassionate Director

Implementation of the No Kill Equation combined with believing in the community and trusting the power of compassion is what will create No Kill communities!  We all need to play our part.

Some great advice from Nathan Winograd– Do good things for animals, tell people about it, ask for their help.

Presently, 4 million homeless pets are killed in our nation’s shelters each year.  So often we hear that there are just too many homeless pets and not enough homes.  However, today we learned that 21 million people plan to add a pet to their household in the next year.  While some are committed to purchasing pets from breeders, 17 million are currently undecided about how they will obtain their new pet.  We just need to convince 4 million of them to choose adoption.

As a small rescue group, we are so thrilled to be able to do our part by working with local shelters to save the lives of adoption challenged black and mostly black cats- looking at you Silly and Missy!  We are also committed to spreading the word about pet adoption and the special challenges that black cats face.