Cats who didn't match the carpet - and other shocking reasons people are dumping their pets

More and more pets are being dumped for frivolous reasons, according to the RSPCA, who last week revealed that the number of abandoned animals rose to 7,347 last year - a 23 per cent increase on the previous year.

The charity blames the figures on our "throwaway society", and exposed some of the astonishing excuses that owners use, including a cat given away because she didn't match the new carpet, and a dog who was unwanted because "she hurts my legs when she wags her tail".

Here, FEMAIL showcases ten cats given to the RSPCA in Southall, West London, all of whom are now in urgent need of new homes.
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Animal shelter looks for foster homes for kittens and puppies

Animal shelter looks for foster homes for kittens and puppies
Shelter staff says they want more foster homes in place before springtime influx.

By Isadora Vail
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Thursday, March 06, 2008

GEORGETOWN — Kathy Wright didn't expect to have to wake up every two hours to feed the two kittens she promised to take care of.

She set the clock anyway, anxious to see if they would survive intestinal and digestive problems at only 2 weeks old.

Wright became a foster parent for kittens in October, after volunteering at the Williamson County Regional Animal Shelter. She and her husband brought two malnourished kittens home, wanting to save them.

"We tend to go for the more challenging pets, where they need more care," Wright said. "It is very rewarding when you see them go from 5 ounces to 2 pounds."

The animal shelter is rebounding from its troubled opening last year that was marked by overcrowding, controversy over conditions and staff turnover. Director Cheryl Schneider hopes to bring down the shelter's euthanasia rate and says training more people to become foster parents could help.

Such families would house kittens or puppies until they were about 8 weeks old. Schneider said they also need help with some special needs or post-surgery animals. Schneider said the shelter would pay for formula and bottles, and other materials for small animals.

Currently, the euthanasia rate is about 28 percent for dogs and 62 percent for cats, but that number is expected to go up in spring, when a burst of kittens and puppies are expected to come in. Both dogs and cats often breed during that time.

The shelter has 81 kennels for cats and 88 kennels for dogs, all of which can hold two animals.

Schneider said they expect the dog population to increase about 25 percent and cats to nearly double once spring arrives.

"I would like to see about 100 active families that we could call to come pick up the animals for a few weeks," Schneider said.

Schneider is also looking for a volunteer to coordinate a foster program that she is hoping to start. A class would be offered to teach neonatal care.

Wright, who lives in Round Rock, learned just how hard it could be to raise kittens. After getting up every two hours for nearly a month, she said she was happy to see the kittens grow to be healthy.

"I never had children, so I didn't know what it was like to get up every few hours to care for them," Wright said.

"They don't have someone to take care of them, and you just feel so bad because it's not their fault."

Wright is now fostering six kittens that will be ready for adoption in two weeks.

Cats In The News

Just like with people, diabetes rising in pets
But 'Catkins' diet, Weight Watchers-type programs and new meds can help

By Kim Campbell Thornton
MSNBC contributor
Kim Campbell Thornton

The 9-year-old Australian Terrier was drinking a lot of water and urinating frequently. So his owner took the little dog to her veterinarian, John Hamil of Canyon Animal Hospital in Laguna Beach, Calif. A urinalysis and blood work revealed that he had diabetes.

As with people, the incidence of diabetes in cats and dogs is increasing. Not so much of a problem in decades past, diabetes now affects as many as one in 50 of the animals, some statistics show, especially pudgy pets.

“There is no question from what I know that is published in the literature that obesity is on the rise, No. 1, and No. 2, diabetes is on the rise right along with it,” says veterinarian Robin Downing, hospital director of Windsor Veterinary Clinic in Windsor, Colo.

Diabetes results when the body doesn't produce enough insulin, a hormone that processes glucose (blood sugar), or properly use it. As a result, the body's tissues cannot use glucose for energy, and the sugar builds up in the blood and urine.

Veterinarians say that while obesity clearly is linked to diabetes in pets, it appears to contribute to the disease differently in cats and dogs.

Fat cats are prone to diabetes because they develop insulin resistance, meaning their bodies don't effectively use insulin. As a result, the pancreas pumps out more insulin as well as another hormone called amylin. “When you get too much insulin secreted, you get too much amylin secreted as well, and that tends to aggregate and destroy the insulin-producing cells,” says veterinarian Richard W. Nelson, a professor at the University of California School of Veterinary Medicine in Davis.

With dogs, obesity is associated with an increased risk of pancreatitis — an inflammation of the pancreas — which can then lead to diabetes because the body doesn't make enough insulin, according to a report by Jacquie S. Rand, a diabetes expert at the University of Queensland’s School of Veterinary Medicine in Brisbane, Australia.

'Catkins' diet and other aids
Not every dog or cat that develops diabetes is fat, but any way you look at it, obesity and diabetes are linked. The good news is that obesity is preventable and reversible, and oftentimes so is the diabetes.Go here to read the rest


Elusive lynx make comeback in Colorado
State biologists are raising, releasing cats after they went extinct there
SOUTH FORK, Colo. - Volunteers opened the metal animal crate in a campground here. A lynx, its footsteps soundless, sprinted from a nest of hay and vanished into the snowy Weminuche wilderness, its fur a perfect match for the winter-deadened landscape.

Researchers released four Canada lynx early this month, another step in a reintroduction program started in 1999. Biologists hope lynx being reintroduced will repopulate a species considered endangered in Colorado and threatened in 47 other states.

The Colorado Division of Wildlife plans to complete the release of 218 Canada lynx to the San Juan Mountains by the end of April. While the reintroduction program cannot be classified as successful yet, researchers said there is definite progress.

Lynx, brown and gray wild cats similar to bobcats, weigh between 18 and 44 pounds, and have tufted ears. Their broad paws -- a trademark feature -- act as natural snowshoes and help them move through the winter landscape. Trackers describe the cats as shy, elusive animals who enjoy living in dark timber. Go here to read the rest of the story
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A cat that fled a house fire is back home in Albuquerque, N.M., after turning up some 240 miles away. The black and white cat named Miko disappeared in December, on the night of the fire.

About two weeks ago, Miko's owner got a call from an animal shelter in Pueblo, Colo., saying her cat was safe.

Officials at the shelter speculate that the cat, trying to keep warm, hopped a tractor-trailer and rode it to Colorado.

When they found her, her collar was missing. But shelter officials scanned the microchip in her neck and came up with her owner's name.



source: MSNBC NEWS