The charismatic feline duo of Momo and Chungus take center stage in this inspiring conversation about animal rescue. Momo, the social butterfly who loves the camera, and Chungus, a quiet survivor whose street wounds were healed with Manuka honey, represent just two of the 50-60 cats currently awaiting forever homes at Animal Care Alliance (https://www.animalcarealliance.com).
Beyond their adorable charm, this discussion highlights the dedication and innovation behind rescue operations. From creative naming themes (think berry-inspired names, pasta collections, and even Nicolas Cage movie titles) to advanced medical treatments like using honey for wound healing and sugar for infection control, the Animal Care Alliance team showcases how compassion meets ingenuity in animal welfare.
Special guests Joyce Luckett and Dr. Stacy Kostiuk join host Kevin Shook to explore critical insights into misunderstood wildlife situations. They debunk myths about "abandoned" baby animals, explaining why mother rabbits visit their young only twice a day, how scentless fawns evade predators, and why well-meaning human intervention can sometimes do more harm than good. The conversation also dives into the effectiveness of Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programs, explaining why mass removal fails due to the "vacuum effect," where new cats inevitably fill vacated territories.
While Animal Care Alliance operates as a low-cost veterinary clinic rather than a traditional shelter, their life-saving work relies on community support. One exciting way to get involved? Their upcoming Whiskers, Whisky & Wine Fundraiser on April 4th, featuring specialty cocktails, wildlife ambassadors, and unique auction items—including original artwork created by the animals themselves!
✨ Join the mission & support animal welfare! Get your tickets today:
👉 Sign up here: https://secure.qgiv.com/for/whiskerswildlifebrunchfundraiser/event/whiskerswhiskywine/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJHh5pleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHT1Cm2ajPNMJrxxcVSw-bU_-DNjafWjE9CJYsQoWqJGypKywd76ykJgRQw_aem_fmBVYOooILL-SIIivi1o7A
Whether you're interested in adoption, fostering, or supporting their mission financially, this episode is the perfect introduction to how you can make a difference in the lives of animals in need.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is a podcast, so you can bleep us out if we say
anything stupid, right?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
That's what makes a podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Life Inscripted with Kevin Shupp.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The kitty cam.
We'll go to the kitty cam.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Thank you.
Life Inscripted.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, it's been a minute.
It's been minutes since I didone of these things.
Actually I just get so wrappedup in other stuff, but it's been
minutes since I did one ofthese things.
Actually I just get so wrappedup in other stuff.
But it's cool.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I appreciate you guys coming and bringing some little
critters that people can adoptyes, we have plenty of kitties
and doggies at Animal Carolinesright now that are up for
adoption.
We've got Mr Momo heresprawling out on the ground
feeling pretty comfortable, andChungus is in the corner, a
little bit more timid.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But Chungus, We've got Mr Momo here sprawling out
on the ground feeling prettycomfortable.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And Chungus is in the corner, a little bit more timid
.
Chungus, how do you get thename Chungus?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You've got to get creative when you have so many
cats that come in.
Do you use Chajiviti at all foranything in life period?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I mean we'll do themed names If we have a litter
of kittens come in.
Had a berry themed, a fruitthemed, a pasta theme.
We had Nicolas Cage movies fora while funny that we gave the
Olive Garden kittens.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
We had 8 Olive Garden kittens and we named them berry
names instead of pasta namesthe pasta litter was not the
Olive Garden litter.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So like based on where you found them, kind of
thing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, they were found by an Olive Garden dumpster.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
They were born under the dumpster a little tiny hole.
When they got big enough, theirmom started bringing them out
when they were big enough towander out on their own.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really that was pretty neat.
So were these part of the ogsthe olive garden.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, chungus came from a cat colony, um, and momo?
Where did momo come from?
He was a bottle.
I mean I.
When he came in, he likeweighed less than a pound.
So he was an itty bitty, he wasa bottle baby oh my so so
what's the story on each one ofthem?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You told me that one of them had some animal bites.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah.
So Chungus was a while back.
He was part of our trap neuterrelease program and we neutered
him, vaccinated him, put himback in the colony and then one
of the caretakers found him andhe must have gotten bit or beat
up by some animal another cat,who knows but he had wounds on
(02:29):
his chest, on his arms and theywere just open and leaking.
So he got sedated, he got thosewounds kind of cleaned up and
then we put Manuka honey on himthat has kind of antibacterial
properties.
It can help speed up healingand after two or three days of
having the Manuka honey on hiswounds and antibiotics it was
(02:52):
healing up real nice.
So Manuka honey man Manuka.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
is that good on humans as well?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, really they do, it does have.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Manuka honey.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, for those non-healing wounds so did you?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
did you learn about this and through studies in
school, when you went to school?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
yeah, that school taught us about that.
Um, in a pinch you can.
Also, if you have a reallyinfected wound, you can just
pour sugar on it until it's,like you know, dry sugar is on
top.
You have to do frequent bandagechanges, but it's that it is so
concentrated, like theosmolarity osmolality um, that
bacteria can't grow in it.
(03:30):
You can pull out fluid um huh,that's interesting every now and
then, if I, if again in a pinch, I prefer honey over sugar.
Um, but if I'm doing sugar,then in my mind I'm singing the
Pour Some Sugar On Me song as Iam treating the air Pour some.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Better not get too far with that.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Copyright Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
That's fascinating.
So we've had a little roughlife.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, Chunkus has had a rough start, but he is a
really sweet, affectionate guy.
That's what we all say when hehad his big old vest on because
of his wounds.
Um, our animal care staff hadlike the little cloth baby
carriers and they just carriedhim around and he was just
snuggled up to their chestbecause you put him down and he
(04:18):
would just kind of freeze andfall over.
So he got carried around like ababy for about two days so he's
pretty chill.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Um, how can they adopt if they're interested?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
um, well, we have adoption forms online or you can
give us a call.
Diana is our kind of adoptionspecialist, so um, reach out to
us if you're interested.
You can always walk through acaand see kind of who we have in
clinic.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, because you have, like what, two cat rooms,
two big rooms.
Yeah, we kind of got a varietyof rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
We got the big cat room and that's kind of a
combination of three rooms.
It's all open, but we have ourfree-roaming cats in there.
Then we have our cats in theback that either have some
medical conditions or perhapsthey don't get along with other
kitties, so they do best bythemselves.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I know we let these out.
I was like, do they get along?
And I think they do, becausethey're quite opposite One's
just chilling and the other isall over.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, Momo is a bit younger, so I think he's a
little bit more adventurous.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I think he's about to jump on the other cat, and then
that might change dynamics.
So, oh, it's all fine, they'refine, they're fine, don't you
think?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
bottle raising a kitten makes it friendlier,
sometimes Friendlier or eviler,I think.
Eviler.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I find sometimes that the bottle raised kittens.
They didn't get that kind ofyou know, how do you, how do you
cat, you don't have yoursiblings telling you hey, that
hurt, that was too rough or um.
And so sometimes they lack thatlittle inhibition that maybe
they would have gotten if theirsiblings said knock it off and
smacked them back that'sinteresting.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Take so, um, what type of?
You got quite a few cats.
If you were to guess, like, howmany cats you have out there.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You know better, I don't know.
I would say probably 50 or 60.
And that is actually a smallnumber.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And you're not a shelter.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
We are not a shelter.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That's the big thing.
That's that's where the youknow it's.
All the other shelters arealways full.
It feels like you're, all theshelters are full, but, um, when
you're not a shelter and youstill have all of these, um,
what are some things with catsthat I think a lot of people
kind of.
They love them, but, like I dida combo back there behind the
cameras, he loves them, but he'sallergic.
(06:49):
Is there?
You know, cause we're so faralong in medicine?
I feel like there would have tobe.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Parkour parkour.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I feel like there would have to be something by
now that helps people.
Well, I will not say the brandbecause I'm not a hundred
percent sure parkour, I feellike there would have to be
something by now that helpspeople.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Um.
Well, I will not say the brandbecause I'm not 100 sure, but
there is a cat food out therethat is supposed to.
If you feed your cats, it, umwill reduce your on the cat side
.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Really, I was thinking more on the human, like
an injection.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean on the human side, you?
Fun fact, I am allergic to cats, so I take Singulair and
Claritin daily.
If I get scratched or bit, I'mstill really, really itchy.
I tried immunotherapy like thedrops under my tongue for a year
or so and it didn't really domuch, Really.
Yeah, it's manageable.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Because I have a cat, but it don't have any hair.
It does have a little fuzz, soI keep telling it.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, I think you're dysfunctional, although we think
it's the saliva and, like thereally fastidious clean cats
that lick themselves, aresometimes the ones that you
react the most to, because it'stheir saliva that you have the
allergy to, I believe.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Do we have a big cat out there?
Do we have any larger cats thatare up for adoption but not
like Tiger King cats?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What reason?
Why are you?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
asking oh, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Like.
Is there any like bingles oranything?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
We're taking care of a bobcat right now that was hit
by a car.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Wow, wow.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
We've had a couple of opportunities to do that.
It's really interesting and Ifind it fascinating that people
think they're so much bigger,but they weigh 18, 20 pounds
tops Really.
Yeah, I've got house catsbigger than that.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
But they look, look, I guess it's just the way lean
or like, because they're morelean or I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Their legs are longer .
Yeah, they have a longer body,a little bit longer legs, and I
just I'm always fascinated withcats.
Um, I've had a couple that dohave hair.
Let's see if it's the saliva.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does it matter then?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I guess not.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
But you know it's nice if a cat is affectionate
with you, I mean they chose you.
A dog has kind ofindiscriminate love A cat.
You gotta feel special if a catchooses you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That's true, mine acts like a dog.
It's true, mine acts like a dog.
It's very, he acts like a dog.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
There are some breeds that are a bit more dog-like.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, the sphinxes, the bingles, savannas I've heard
all play like dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, my friend has a Siberian cat that is very
dog-like.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Whoa.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's a longer hair.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Really.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
A little bigger.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So what other animals are out there that people could
adopt?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We still have our two bunnies.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Bunny rabbits.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
However, just because it's Easter time does not mean
you have to get a bunny.
You have to be prepared to takecare of them for its lifespan
Do not just.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
We have a poster in the window that says you
wouldn't buy your child areindeer at christmas time, why
would you buy your child arabbit at easter time, which I
love?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
people just kind of forget.
Well, especially with the size.
They're small so they probablythink kind of like um for like
real low key.
For like three years I keptresearching, uh, sugar gliders.
They're small, they havepersonalities, bond, all this
other stuff.
But the farther you go downthat trail it's like there are a
(10:33):
ton more responsibilities withthose things than what people
think, and I feel like all yousee on the internet is pictures
of the good times.
So what are some hard thingsabout raising bunnies?
What kind of bunnies are theseRun-of-the-mill rabbits Like?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
random size.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Like five, six pounds , something like that.
They're very, very sweet.
We took one of them to IU Eastfor.
Mental Health Day a week or twoago and it was a huge hit and
we just passed it from person toperson and they just held it
and cuddled with it.
It was.
It was very nice.
These are sweet rabbits.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Are they like?
The got kicked out of 4-H, sonow they're at the.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I don't know how we acquired them, really.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I think we got the mom too.
The mom and two siblings, butthe mom was old and didn't last
very long, but the two siblingswe still have and we just want
them to get a really good home.
We don't really push them hard,but, um, I feel like so many
rabbits don't end up in greatplaces.
You know, people get them, theythink they're cool for a week
or two and then they get stuckin a hutch and never get out
(11:38):
again.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So so if you were to tell them like this is the top
400 reasons why you should notown one of these, before you
actually do own one of these,what are some things that people
need to really know aboutraising bunny rabbits?
They're not like a dog or cat.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
They still need medical care.
So you need to look intospaying and neutering and
sometimes you have to be reallycareful about putting two
rabbits together.
They can get quite nasty toeach other if you're not careful
.
You know, even just holdingthem properly they have really
powerful back legs and so ifthey kick out when you're not
holding them right, you knowthey can break their back.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
So, but that's about as far as my bunny knowledge
goes.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Really.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You need well, I mean a little bit more.
You need to trim teeth um ohwow, that's fun you need to have
you know proper diet.
Um dogs and cats you can kindof just you know if you feed
them your your proper food, it'seasier to kind of do their
husbandry right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But bunnies take a little bit more I think of that
we used to have.
We used to say 80%.
There you go, caught one, 80%,timothy.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Hayes would be there.
Momo, this is Momo.
Come here, momo, hang on, momo.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
You can lay down on the table.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Let's see, let's see.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
What's up, but kind of going off of the Easter
piggyback.
Another thing to be cognizantof is that a lot of people like
to get lilies around Easter time, and lilies are extremely toxic
to cats.
Even the pollen can kill them,or the water that the lilies
have been in can cause kidneyfailure and kill them.
(13:17):
So if you have a cat in yourhouse and someone gets you
flowers or you bring flowershome, you need to make sure that
they are not true lilies inthere.
There are plants out there thatlook like lilies that are not
true lilies that are non-toxic,but if it's a true lily, that is
pretty bad for them I'm diggingyour curiosity.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's a new studio cat .
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Perfect, perfect, perfect I think joyce you should
talk about.
I mean, we've gotten our firstset of wild orphaned wildlife in
oh yeah, how's that going?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
which were those the?
bunnies, I believe yeah yeah,and they're all gone.
You know, bunnies are thehardest things to raise.
I think if you ask anyrehabilitator, they will tell
you the same thing.
Number one the mama bunny onlycomes at dusk and dawn to feed
the babies when they're still inthe nest.
And people see them in themiddle of the day and they think
, oh, they're orphaned, you know, or something must have
happened to the mom and theyscoop them up and and I don't
(14:20):
care how careful you are, howgood a rehabilitator you are, so
often, very often they die andI've had situations where I
think, oh, they're this big,maybe one or two more days and
that will be time to let them go, and two more days that you
just find them dead and they'rejust very, very difficult to
raise.
(14:43):
So advice is unless you know forsure that that mom is gone and
one way to tell that is the momplucks fur from their tummy and
covers up the nest or the babiesso if you think that they've
been orphaned and you cover itup and you put a couple of cross
sticks on top of it, you shouldbe able to know by morning if
the sticks are moved.
Then maybe there's a real goodchance that that mom is still
around.
That's a fun fact.
(15:05):
I think about that because yousee that a lot, and you see that
a lot when you're mowing, yeah,yeah, I don't know if this is
true or not.
It seems kind of ridiculous,but another rehabber told me
that rabbits are getting sosmart that they are nesting
closer and closer to homes, eventhough it's a domestic
situation.
They'd rather take that chancethan leave them out in the field
where coyotes foxes otherwildlife can get them.
(15:27):
Like I said, I don't know ifthat's true or not, but yeah,
I've seen that before mowing.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Uh, luckily I've never.
They never jumped up, so but itdoes kind of scare you and
you're like I kind of need tomow the yard.
Just got to be careful and I'veseen them on Peacock Road in my
house in town, so they'll do itanywhere.
Yeah, they will.
They'll put them anywhere.
What other wildlife have yougot recently?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
It's just about the time of year when we'll start
getting them in droves.
We get an awful lot of babyraccoons, and that's another
thing that can very often beavoided.
People we get an awful lot ofbaby raccoons, and that's
another thing that can veryoften be avoided.
People hear something in theirattic and they think, oh, it's a
raccoon, so I'm going to set atrap for it.
And so they trap the mom andthey take it out 20 yards or 20
miles or something like that,and then the next day they hear
baby raccoons crawling.
(16:16):
So then they call us, and babyraccoons are a lengthy, lengthy
rehabilitation.
They would stay with their momtill they're five or six months
old, and so we have to keep themsometimes four or five, six
months old till they're that oldbefore we let them go.
So it's.
It's a lengthy process.
The easiest thing to do saveyour money from pest companies
(16:37):
and stuff like that is, if youhear something in your attic,
take a loud radio play it upthere turn all the lights on.
I've even heard soak towels inammonia and put them upstairs in
a bucket because they don'tlike the smell.
They will take their babies andgo, so that's the easiest, most
humane way to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Wow, is it hard to do you ever get to that?
Six months, five, six monthswhere they're like no, it's
warmer in here, or somethinglike that?
Is it hard to get them to adapt?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
By no, it's warmer in here, or something like that.
Is it hard to get them to adapt?
By the time they're adolescents, we put them outside in an
enclosure and we don't pay anyattention to them after we are
done bottle feeding them.
After that, we just let themgrow feed them water and clean
up after them.
And they are so wild, usuallyby the time it's release time.
We have to net them or trapthem, and that's the way we want
it.
We want them to take them ortrap them.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And that's the way we want it.
We want to, you know, want themto take them out in the woods
and and be so wild that thatthey don't want to be around
people or they're afraid ofpeople.
It's not easy on us, but it'sthe best thing for the raccoons.
So backing up, if people arewatching this that watched our
fundraiser, what was the story?
What was the raccoon's name?
Spike, so what was his story?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Spike came to us with a litter as a tiny, tiny
raccoon and he was just a littlebit deformed.
He was short-statured, his legswere too short and he couldn't
climb well.
So we had him, since he wassmall.
So he's just a big mush ball.
He's like having a puppy orsomething like that.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He can't survive at all.
So was yeah, so was yeah, wow,and I think he's eight or nine
now.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Because, he's just as chill as this.
That's not a reason to have apet vaccine.
That's true.
It's illegal.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's not good.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
We have two right now .
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Everything that you do is legal.
Everything's permitted,everything's.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I did have in Michigan where I lived.
I was seeing a lady for her dogand then all of a sudden she
said are you a narc?
I'm sorry what she goes?
Are you a narc?
I go?
No, she goes.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I have a pet raccoon well, I have ties to something
that's a chimpanzee yes, yeah,but there are right ways and
wrong ways to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You can get a domestic bred raccoon.
It'll cost you a few hundreddollars, but it's legal to do
that and you have to do theright medical thing.
You have to take him and havehim examined once a year and buy
all the permits and all that,but just to get one from the
wild and try to keep it.
That's with a skunk or a possumor anything.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Or a squirrel, possum or anything, or squirrel, no
matter what it is, it's notlegal, no matter how cute the
youtube videos are right, andthat's the problem.
Too many of these videos onsocial media have animals being
cute, even big tigers in umdubai, like they'll have pet
tigers and they're like lokiattacking them on.
I'm like no, see this.
See, that's why he sees himself, he sees himself now the cat
can when you at buddy, yeah, sothis pet's adoptable.
(19:34):
He likes being on camera.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Keep him away from your TV.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Keep him away from your TV.
He's funny and his name andeverything again is momo momo
momo curly mo.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
That was great um choice.
You can maybe talk aboutfledgling birds and how they're
often brought to us and they'renot truly orphaned.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, a lot of most of them, I would say, aren't
orphaned.
I mean, unless you see that'sgot a broken leg fluttering a
wing or something like thatbleeding or a fledgling.
Fledgling on the ground.
They've left the nest.
Oh, okay, most of the time theparents are around, okay, and
people pick them up way too fastand bring them to us.
And we've had a lot ofsituations.
I've called them and I said youknow why did you bring us this
(20:23):
bird?
There's nothing wrong with it,or doesn't seem to be anything
wrong with it, and taking itsometimes many miles back to
where they found it, walk out ofthe car and mom comes
fluttering down once the babychirps.
So you just got to give it sometime.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Right, but nature takes its course.
It's easy because you know allthese animals are cute, adorable
.
So people just go oh, the mom'sgone, I'm going to rescue it.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Here you go Big deer.
No, you just messed it upactually.
Oh, deer Fonz, you get a lot ofdeer.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We get a lot of Fonz and they're very difficult to
raise too.
Memorial Day is very close towhen a lot of Fonz are born and
mom takes the Fonz and finds anice, quiet place for it and she
beds it down and then she goesoff.
She might go off for 12, 14hours doing her own thing and
(21:12):
then come back for the fawn andcemeteries are very, very busy
at memorial day and you knowthat was a quiet, nice place to
put the fawn until memorial dayweekend came along.
So, um, we've taken a lot offawns back and returned them to
where they came from.
But the best thing is just to.
I mean, if you don't seebleeding or broken legs or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Just leave it alone.
Yeah, I think you know thefawn's ears.
If they're curled back thatmeans they've maybe been left a
little bit longer and they'redehydrated.
But I think you know, the firstfew days of life the fawn has
no scent imparted on it, sothey're by themselves, but
they're not attracting anypredators because they don't
have a scent to them.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I've even heard that moms, if they have twins or
sometimes even triplets, willpark them different places so
that if a predator comes alongit only gets one.
It's kind of morbid.
It's kind of like which one'smy favorite kid?
You're airing the spare which?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
one's my favorite kid , which one's the runt of my
kids.
We're going to put you closerto right you're gonna take one
of these, take the sister, I'lltake one.
Um, that's fascinating, Ididn't know you got ponds.
Um how's ozzy is.
Uh, what's what's.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
What's her situation ozzy is a mess right now.
Ozzy's built a nest.
We're giving her sticks everyday that she puts in her great
big nest.
It's like this big around.
So I think she's probably shemay lay an egg, but she's flying
at us when we go into herenclosure because she's hormonal
and yeah.
Wow, so we were going to bringher to the event, but we're
(22:41):
thinking having second thoughts.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Right, this is Momo.
Momo needs a home.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Momo says adopt me, I'm going to sit pretty we're
thinking, having second thoughtsabout it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
This is Momo.
Momo needs a home.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Momo says adopt me, I'm going to sit pretty, for the
camera Are there.
Adoption fees $75 for most ofour cats, and then dogs are
about $100.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
But we usually give you a discount if you get more
than one.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Okay, I see, and the fees are because you provide
such great medical care andeverything else.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
They're completely vetted, vaccinated, spayed,
neutered um feline leukemia fivtested microchipped and we
actually lose money on everysingle cat.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
We have way more in the cat then.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yes, then we get back really just want to help the
cat.
So, speaking of losing money,do you have any special events
coming?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
up.
We do um april 4th, friday,april 4th, from 7 to 10 pm is
our first ticketed fundraisingevent whiskers, whiskey and wine
be held at forest hills.
we have blue buffalo as ourtitle sponsor for the event.
Um, we also have primax earlywine, pest control and bed bath
(23:49):
and biscuits as our sponsors,and it will feature live and
silent auction items.
We'll have heavy hors d'oeuvresthe rso are providing and have
donated some musicians for theevening as well, and we'll have
specialty animal-themedcocktails.
(24:09):
The first hour of the eventwe'll have our wildlife
ambassadors out minus Ozzy, andtwo of our ambassadors, nigel
and Opal, are going to showcasetheir artistic ability and they
have made some original artwork.
(24:36):
It's only going to be one peranimal.
It'll be nicely framed.
Suzanne Cox is framing for usand those will be auctioned off
and so if you go to our Facebookpage, we are kind of showcasing
some of our auction items andsome of our sponsors.
We have some pretty cool liveauction items.
You can get a private chef tocome to your house.
You can get.
Are you going to jump?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Right into the screen , because as soon as he came
back up on the screen he waslike whoop.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
What Is that mean?
Um we've got, um we have a tripto.
Scotland to the St Andrews golfcourse for four people for five
nights that we're auctioningoff.
Um, so we've got.
We've got some really awesomeitems.
Um, I think it's going to be alot of fun.
Um, go to our Facebook page.
(25:24):
We'll have a link where you canpurchase tickets If you can't
attend but would still like todonate.
That link also works just finefor that too.
So, yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
It will hopefully become a yearly event.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Right, because there was nothing like that for these
little fellas, because this oneneeds a camera.
This one needs a camera.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, you're a star bud.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He could have his own live stream.
The Momo cam We'll twist theEarth cam around and the Momo
cam.
This is Momo.
He would like to be adopted.
Actually, I think he's justreally intrigued.
That's cute.
(26:14):
So they can buy tickets online,they can make donations online
and it all goes to the AnimalCare Alliance Yep, which needs
donations for Momo and hisfriends.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Unfortunately, these guys and our wildlife are
non-paying customers.
So while we do operate a fullclinic and we try to cater to
lower-income families, ouroperating budget and what we
bring in through the clinicthere's roughly about a $75,000
(26:52):
difference, and so we are doingthese fundraisers so that we can
kind of bridge that gap.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And most of our cats come to us in need with no
owners.
They not only need to be spayed, neutered, vaccinated and all
that stuff, but they um veryoften like chungus wounds
everywhere and they require anintense, sometimes, amount of
medical care which just comesout of our pockets we had one
(27:19):
brought to us today.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Luckily the woman was able to pay for the care.
Um, but that one has a brokenleg so that one will be getting
its leg amputated.
Um richmond police departmentbrought in one for us and um had
its leg amputated.
They were kind enough to payfor the normal vetting care,
like the vaccines and the, thespay, and then we fundraised for
(27:43):
the amputation so, all of thisbeing said, we have a basically
a pandemic problem ofoverpopulation of cats and
whatnot.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Um, whether that's people not getting the animal
spayed and neutered, lettingtheir cats go.
I've heard little things, bitsand pieces about a more
progressive approach where we'reattempting to catch, fix and
(28:16):
release type situation.
Do you want to talk about thatat all?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Sure, we've done several of those events where we
target a colony and we go outand trap them, bring them in
sedate, uh, spay, neuter,vaccinate, flea treat, um.
So we've done, I would say,four large scale ones.
(28:40):
And then we, you know, normalsurgery days.
We'll do a few here, a fewthere, but we had one weekend I
think we did 70, another we did55.
And then there's a couple ofdays where I'm flying solo.
So we'll do, you know, 30, 35.
But it's, it's a lot of work fora lot of people.
(29:01):
The trapping part I'm fortunateor lucky enough that you know I
work on the surgery aspect.
I'm not going out when it'scold and rainy and trying to set
these traps and pick up thecats, and so there's a lot of
man hours that go into doing asuccessful TNR.
We got to know how many catsare in that colony.
You know, if it's a 20 colony,uh, 20 cat colony, and we only
(29:25):
fix five.
We really haven't done anythingto stabilize that population.
So we need someone that'swilling to kind of catalog those
cats so that we know when we goout there how many we need to
catch for this to be successful.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And then we also need the funds for that right so it
was this casual conversationwith a friend of mine, ed, and
he mentioned that though they,that though they're working on
that through, maybe, the city tofind those colonies, are their
programs maybe about to start?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
In 2024, the city and county had leftover ARPA funds
that were earmarked for animalwelfare, so we were able to use
those funds for a couple of TNRevents.
Those types of funds are notavailable for 2025.
So I think there has to be morecreative ways in order to get
those funds.
While it is not as front andcenter as it was in 2024, there
(30:27):
are people out there within thegovernment and private citizens
that are trying to find asolution.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, because eventually it has to come back
to the government coming in,because it's really hard.
I know you can have fundraiserafter fundraiser and everything
else, but um the if it's apandemic situation, then there
needs to be funds coming fromabove us um to help address some
(30:58):
of that stuff.
That way we're not a hundredpercent reliant on donations,
you know.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, it's really multifaceted, so is it a good
program.
The TNR is really the onlysuccessful way to deal with them
.
You know a while back theywould try just mass euthanasia.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Golly, and that didn't work, jim Jones.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, and that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That would be sad.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Relocating Say, okay, I don't want a colony by my
house, so we're going to move it.
Well, you know, another catwill just come in and take up
that territory.
It's called the vacuum effect.
So you know, trying to removethem, whether it's relocation or
euthanasia, doesn't work.
So you just need to get apopulation of cats that cannot
(31:46):
reproduce.
Then they will hold thatterritory and prevent other cats
from coming in and theneventually, eventually, those
(32:08):
cats will kind of naturally ageout.
So it is.
It is not a program that you'regoing to see success in a year
or two.
It's something that needs tohave a long-term plan and a
long-term goal in place, andpart of it is we also need to
get better data collection sothat we can see what we're doing
and compare to five years agoand five years from now what
we're doing and compare to, youknow, five years ago and five
years from now.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
But when you think about the good that can be done
from just one TNR event, I meanit took a lot of people, three,
four, five days to get that 70,you know, 70 trapped 70 cats.
Excuse me, but if you thinkabout each of those cats
producing just one litter offive, that's 350 cats you've
saved, right then.
Yeah, and they're going to makemore than that.
It's not going to be just onelitter, it's going to be that
litter and their kittens andtheir kittens' kittens and it
(32:52):
goes on and on and on.
But so really, if you get acolony under control, you can
get it great success pretty fast, you hear that burn.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I do the same thing when someone scratches me you're
gonna mess around and I'm gonnahave to adopt you for a single
colony.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
You know, coming in there and trap neutering
obviously does wonders for thatsingle colony.
But as a widespread project,you know it, it's going to be a
lot of work to get Wayne Countyunder control.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And it's, and it's still costly because of all the
all right he's working, he'sworking, he's working hard.
It's still costly because youstill have all the In supplies.
What does it take to do?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I mean, we estimate roughly about $70 per cat and it
can go anywhere between $ know40 and 70 dollars.
It depends on how many, howmany volunteers we have that day
versus how many are paid staff.
So I would love to see, uh,that we have a network of vets
(34:16):
that would and a network ofvolunteers that would donate
their time and come and do this.
But right now it's kind offalling on animal care alliance
and so it's.
We're paying our staff to bethere on a saturday and a sunday
to do this.
So obviously that's a lot ofcost.
And then, um, lately, with painmeds, a lot of it's been on
back order, and so that is acostly part of the procedure too
(34:39):
.
But we're not going to dosurgery on an animal and not
provide it the pain meds itneeds.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I'd be right there with the mass euthanasia.
I feel like my Omo might getadopted out of this whole debut
today.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Now we need to put Chungus on the table.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
He's asleep, oh, he's awake.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, he's just chilling in the corner.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
He's starting to move a little bit.
Chunkus come here.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Come on, bubba, should I try and pick you up?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
See if they switch spotlights.
You want my beauty.
How is my doctor going to seethis and yell at me?
Is that your husband, chungus?
Hi, so this is Chungus.
(35:36):
This is the one with the.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
This is the one that had the honey on his chest To
fix his wounds so you can seehow he has a tipped left ear.
So he was originally a colonycat and we tipped the left ear
so that from a distance we knowthat he's been fixed and so if
he's in a trap we can releasehim and not have to sedate and
check to see if he has a tattooor if he's been neutered.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Got you.
They're still checking eachother out.
What's up, buddy?
Did we wake you up?
Woke him up from his nap?
Look, this one's going to belike I'm the host, you're just
(36:22):
the guest, and this is my show.
This is the Momo show, chungus.
They're so fun Because they'resuch intelligent creatures.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
That's a personality.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Uh-oh, it's on.
He's lifting the paw.
Put up the scoreboard to yourcorners what's wrong?
What's wrong?
Momo trying to go?
This is a little bigger thanyou, so, pound for pound,
(37:03):
they're just coexisting rightnow.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yes, I acknowledge your presence, but a lot of
times excess cats can be aneighborhood problem too, where
neighbors are kind of againsteach other.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You're feeding the cats and I don't like it, you
know, and they're coming in myyard and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So if you can show that some of these cats have ear
tips, a lot of times that calmsthings down.
You know neighbors will saywell, they're making an effort.
You know, I can see that thiscat isn't going to be leaving
babies in my bushes and thatright, so that's the mark it's
the mark that's the not gettingher pregnant, not getting
pregnant not
Speaker 3 (37:38):
spraying, not spraying and they'll roam a
little less too.
So, um, you know, we're tryingto equip our animal control
officers with deterrent kits sothat if someone calls and says I
have a cat problem, um, theycan go over and say okay, why
don't we make sure your garbagecan lids are more secure and why
(37:59):
don't we set up this likemotion sensor thing for a little
bit?
And then let's go figure outwhere this cat is coming from,
the colony and see if we canwork on getting this colony
fixed so they're less likely toroam in your yard.
So, um, there's a lot of ideasout there to improve the animal
welfare situation here in waynecounty and we just have to work
on implementing them, is it?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
really a problem, like I.
So there's uh, two of them thatwalk across my front, uh, front
of my house, and looks in likethe big window and stuff, and
I'll, uh, I'll take it a littlebit of food from my cat and put
it out there and we'll hang out,it'll, I'll turn my, I'll have
the bubbler on and they'll go upand play in the water and stuff
(38:43):
.
Then they just go on abouttheir day.
But I don't know if they'refixed or not.
That's the problem.
If they're not fixed.
You know, momo, this is great.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
I like his cool confidence.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh yeah, he's better on camera than all of like
everybody I've met well and forwell.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Another amazing cat we had, but um, he left last on
friday.
Uh, billberry and blueberrywere part of our berry little,
so we had boysenberry,blackberry, blueberry and
bilberry and their mom wasraspberry and gooseberryoseberry
outside.
Oh, and Gooseberry Was he part?
No, but that was, yeah, we haveGooseberry outside, but he's
(39:28):
not related to that litter.
But we took, we thought it wasBlueberry.
It was actually Billberry.
We took them to the mentalhealth day at IU and he was just
a little rock star there justlaying on the tables and
strutting around.
So it's nice having theconfident cats that'll go out
and see your love.
(39:48):
You know there are a lot ofcats Like Chungus has decided he
wants to be a little bitquieter, but he'd probably warm
up real quick in a home wherehe's not so overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
This one's type A personality, momo.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
His tongue's sticking out.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Was it it was.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
And now that it's getting warmer although I would
advocate we need to do ityear-round but now that it's
getting warmer we definitelyneed to get our pets back on
flea and heartworm prevention.
You know flea and ticks.
If it's warmer than 32 degreesout ticks are active.
So even in during the winter,if you get a warm day, you can
still get ticks, and I would sayin the clinic we still see
(40:33):
fleas nonstop year round.
And so if your pet has fleasyou need to make sure that that
pet plus all of the animals inand out of your house.
So if you have an outdoor dog oran indoor outdoor cat, they're
included they should be on theirflea prevention for a minimum
of three months to get throughthat kind of outbreak of fleas
(40:53):
in the house and then heartworm.
While heartworm can affect cats, it's a bigger problem in dogs
but that's a worm that lives inthe blood that surrounds kind of
the heart and lung, lives inthe vessels and if they get sick
with that they can get a lot ofscarring.
And to treat heartworm onceyou've become infected you're
(41:15):
looking at injections that arearsenic based.
You have to restrict theiractivity for for six months and
so it's much easier to just givethem a monthly pill, and that
monthly pill kills any babies,little heartworm babies that are
floating around in the bloodand heartworms transmitted by
mosquitoes.
So wow, okay it's much cheaperand much easier on your pet to
(41:38):
do heartworm prevention thanheartworm treatment well, that's
like a human health.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's much cheaper to be healthy.
Versus medications.
Who is that?
Who is that?
What's up?
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I think someone found a new cat.
That's what.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I'm thinking.
What was that all about?
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
My other one would probably go kind of crazy.
If only there was an option totry them before you buy them you
can always foster to adopt no,no, no, because that's how you
adopt never fails.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, foster fails no , don't do that.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
We are looking for fosters though.
So if anyone ever wants to be afoster, it's very rewarding.
You know Animal Care Alliancestill kind of takes care of the
medical bill aspect.
But then you have a kittythat's not in a sheltered
environment and, as enrichingand clean as we want to be, cats
are stressed out there, sothey're going to be more prone
(42:45):
to getting upper respiratoryinfections.
So if we can have dogs or catsin a home while they're waiting
for their forever home, thatwould be ideal.
So if you ever have anyinterest in fostering, give
Animal Care Alliance a call andwe can set you up.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Whoa, I felt like I didn't have claws decline.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Since I've become a vet we've really decreased doing
that yeah, I'm really happyabout that.
That's like ripping yourfingernails off it's not even
your fingernails, it's thatwhole first joint.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
So you are, it is it is a 10 digit amputation.
That's insane.
I'd never do that.
There's no reason, no rhyme, noreason, mine, so he lets me
clip them.
It started when they were ababy.
If you can start them whenthey're a baby, they'll just let
(43:39):
you clip them.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Or you find a good enough treat.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
I feel like Momo wouldn't.
Momo's up for anything.
Yeah, he's down for a good timetreat.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
I feel like Momo wouldn't Momo's up for anything,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
He's down for a good time.
I'm going to go out later bro.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Little catnip.
Yeah, it was really long.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
He just said no Chinese food, they're fun.
The next time I'll have youbring the big.
You got any big pit bulls oranything like that out there,
big dogs.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
They're small.
We have Gage Pitch like a boxerpit type thing.
We've got Charm.
That's lab pit, maybe Mulberrysame.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Mulberry's like 20 pounds.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
She's still a really little dog you can bring some
dogs next time.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
She's been with little kids yeah and cats.
She's good with everybody.
She's a sweetheart and she'sabout a year old, a little over
a year old and let's see, oh, westill have Coral, that's right.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
I forget about Coral cause she's in.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Foster.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
We had some great adoptions.
Recently, though, we adopted abig German shepherd named
Handsome that was found in thebitter cold.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Oh yeah, I remember, handsome he was at the live
stream event.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
That's right.
Yeah, handsome got a home witha staff member.
It's working out really well.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Handsome does not like me, so they didn't know he
is not.
So they didn't know he is not.
I'm not his biggest fan.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Huh.
But he only saw me in like avet setting.
Oh yeah, you're stabbing himwith needles.
He's not going to like you.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
No, he is doing great in his new home and then, we
adopted out our husky blue ivy.
She was found by some goodSamaritans, hit by cars, so she
had to have surgery on her hip.
She got spayed and vaccinatedand she went to a wonderful home
that has another husky and acorgi and they did a meet and
greet and got along famously.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Wow, well, is there anything else?
You want to kind of wrap thisup and run through the event
again?
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Yes, to wrap this up and uh um run through the event
again.
Yes, so whiskers, whiskey andwine.
April 4th, from 7 to 10 pm atforest hills country club, we'll
have some heavy hors d'oeuvresand uh drinks.
Your admission includes aticket for a specialty cocktail.
I think we have the regalbeagle and the fal Falcon are
our two specialty cocktails.
Blue Buffalo is our titlesponsor, so they are definitely
(46:12):
helping us make this eventhappen.
Some wonderful live auction,silent auction pieces.
We will have our wildlifeambassadors there so you can
come meet Nigel and Opal andThornton and Zoya, you know Zoya
.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I know Zoya.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Zoya's going to be there and then check out.
You'll be able to see theirartwork that they've produced,
Nigel and Opal.
It'll be a really good time,and doing it for a good cause.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And hopefully every year it can keep growing and
growing.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Anything else from you.
I think it's all been said yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
well, um momo and chungus chungus is available for
adoption at the animal CareAlliance.
You can download theirapplication online or you can
stop by during business hoursand see these cats no-transcript
(01:16:29):
.
This is a podcast, so you can bleep us out if we say
anything stupid, right?
Speaker 2 (00:04):
That's what makes a podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Life Inscripted with Kevin Shupp.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
The kitty cam.
We'll go to the kitty cam.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
I like it.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So welcome back.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
Thank you.
Life Inscripted.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Yes, it's been a minute.
It's been minutes since I didone of these things.
Actually I just get so wrappedup in other stuff, but it's been
minutes since I did one ofthese things.
Actually I just get so wrappedup in other stuff.
But it's cool.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
I appreciate you guys coming and bringing some little
critters that people can adoptyes, we have plenty of kitties
and doggies at Animal Carolinesright now that are up for
adoption.
We've got Mr Momo heresprawling out on the ground
feeling pretty comfortable, andChungus is in the corner, a
little bit more timid.
Speaker 2 (00:47):
But Chungus, We've got Mr Momo here sprawling out
on the ground feeling prettycomfortable.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
And Chungus is in the corner, a little bit more timid
.
Chungus, how do you get thename Chungus?
Speaker 2 (00:53):
You've got to get creative when you have so many
cats that come in.
Do you use Chajiviti at all foranything in life period?
Speaker 3 (00:59):
I mean we'll do themed names If we have a litter
of kittens come in.
Had a berry themed, a fruitthemed, a pasta theme.
We had Nicolas Cage movies fora while funny that we gave the
Olive Garden kittens.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
We had 8 Olive Garden kittens and we named them berry
names instead of pasta namesthe pasta litter was not the
Olive Garden litter.
Speaker 2 (01:25):
So like based on where you found them, kind of
thing.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
Yeah, they were found by an Olive Garden dumpster.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Wow, that's crazy.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
They were born under the dumpster a little tiny hole.
When they got big enough, theirmom started bringing them out
when they were big enough towander out on their own.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Really that was pretty neat.
So were these part of the ogsthe olive garden.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
No, chungus came from a cat colony, um, and momo?
Where did momo come from?
He was a bottle.
I mean I.
When he came in, he likeweighed less than a pound.
So he was an itty bitty, he wasa bottle baby oh my so so
what's the story on each one ofthem?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
You told me that one of them had some animal bites.
Speaker 3 (02:09):
Yeah.
So Chungus was a while back.
He was part of our trap neuterrelease program and we neutered
him, vaccinated him, put himback in the colony and then one
of the caretakers found him andhe must have gotten bit or beat
up by some animal another cat,who knows but he had wounds on
(02:29):
his chest, on his arms and theywere just open and leaking.
So he got sedated, he got thosewounds kind of cleaned up and
then we put Manuka honey on himthat has kind of antibacterial
properties.
It can help speed up healingand after two or three days of
having the Manuka honey on hiswounds and antibiotics it was
(02:52):
healing up real nice.
So Manuka honey man Manuka.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
is that good on humans as well?
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Yeah, really they do, it does have.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Manuka honey.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yeah, for those non-healing wounds so did you?
Speaker 2 (03:04):
did you learn about this and through studies in
school, when you went to school?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
yeah, that school taught us about that.
Um, in a pinch you can.
Also, if you have a reallyinfected wound, you can just
pour sugar on it until it's,like you know, dry sugar is on
top.
You have to do frequent bandagechanges, but it's that it is so
concentrated, like theosmolarity osmolality um, that
bacteria can't grow in it.
(03:30):
You can pull out fluid um huh,that's interesting every now and
then, if I, if again in a pinch, I prefer honey over sugar.
Um, but if I'm doing sugar,then in my mind I'm singing the
Pour Some Sugar On Me song as Iam treating the air Pour some.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Better not get too far with that.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Copyright Wow.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
That's fascinating.
So we've had a little roughlife.
Speaker 3 (03:56):
Yeah, Chunkus has had a rough start, but he is a
really sweet, affectionate guy.
That's what we all say when hehad his big old vest on because
of his wounds.
Um, our animal care staff hadlike the little cloth baby
carriers and they just carriedhim around and he was just
snuggled up to their chestbecause you put him down and he
(04:18):
would just kind of freeze andfall over.
So he got carried around like ababy for about two days so he's
pretty chill.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
Um, how can they adopt if they're interested?
Speaker 3 (04:29):
um, well, we have adoption forms online or you can
give us a call.
Diana is our kind of adoptionspecialist, so um, reach out to
us if you're interested.
You can always walk through acaand see kind of who we have in
clinic.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Yeah, because you have, like what, two cat rooms,
two big rooms.
Yeah, we kind of got a varietyof rooms.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
We got the big cat room and that's kind of a
combination of three rooms.
It's all open, but we have ourfree-roaming cats in there.
Then we have our cats in theback that either have some
medical conditions or perhapsthey don't get along with other
kitties, so they do best bythemselves.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
I know we let these out.
I was like, do they get along?
And I think they do, becausethey're quite opposite One's
just chilling and the other isall over.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
Yeah, Momo is a bit younger, so I think he's a
little bit more adventurous.
Speaker 2 (05:20):
I think he's about to jump on the other cat, and then
that might change dynamics.
So, oh, it's all fine, they'refine, they're fine, don't you
think?
Speaker 1 (05:33):
bottle raising a kitten makes it friendlier,
sometimes Friendlier or eviler,I think.
Eviler.
Speaker 3 (05:39):
I find sometimes that the bottle raised kittens.
They didn't get that kind ofyou know, how do you, how do you
cat, you don't have yoursiblings telling you hey, that
hurt, that was too rough or um.
And so sometimes they lack thatlittle inhibition that maybe
they would have gotten if theirsiblings said knock it off and
smacked them back that'sinteresting.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Yeah, that's interesting.
Take so, um, what type of?
You got quite a few cats.
If you were to guess, like, howmany cats you have out there.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
You know better, I don't know.
I would say probably 50 or 60.
And that is actually a smallnumber.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
And you're not a shelter.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
We are not a shelter.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
That's the big thing.
That's that's where the youknow it's.
All the other shelters arealways full.
It feels like you're, all theshelters are full, but, um, when
you're not a shelter and youstill have all of these, um,
what are some things with catsthat I think a lot of people
kind of.
They love them, but, like I dida combo back there behind the
cameras, he loves them, but he'sallergic.
(06:49):
Is there?
You know, cause we're so faralong in medicine?
I feel like there would have tobe.
That's awesome.
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Parkour parkour.
Speaker 2 (07:00):
I feel like there would have to be something by
now that helps people.
Well, I will not say the brandbecause I'm not a hundred
percent sure parkour, I feellike there would have to be
something by now that helpspeople.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Um.
Well, I will not say the brandbecause I'm not 100 sure, but
there is a cat food out therethat is supposed to.
If you feed your cats, it, umwill reduce your on the cat side
.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
Really, I was thinking more on the human, like
an injection.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
I mean on the human side, you?
Fun fact, I am allergic to cats, so I take Singulair and
Claritin daily.
If I get scratched or bit, I'mstill really, really itchy.
I tried immunotherapy like thedrops under my tongue for a year
or so and it didn't really domuch, Really.
Yeah, it's manageable.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
Because I have a cat, but it don't have any hair.
It does have a little fuzz, soI keep telling it.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Well, I think you're dysfunctional, although we think
it's the saliva and, like thereally fastidious clean cats
that lick themselves, aresometimes the ones that you
react the most to, because it'stheir saliva that you have the
allergy to, I believe.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Do we have a big cat out there?
Do we have any larger cats thatare up for adoption but not
like Tiger King cats?
Speaker 1 (08:18):
What reason?
Why are you?
Speaker 2 (08:19):
asking oh, I'm just curious.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (08:22):
Like.
Is there any like bingles oranything?
Speaker 1 (08:24):
We're taking care of a bobcat right now that was hit
by a car.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Wow, wow.
Speaker 1 (08:29):
We've had a couple of opportunities to do that.
It's really interesting and Ifind it fascinating that people
think they're so much bigger,but they weigh 18, 20 pounds
tops Really.
Yeah, I've got house catsbigger than that.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
But they look, look, I guess it's just the way lean
or like, because they're morelean or I don't know.
Speaker 2 (08:55):
Their legs are longer .
Yeah, they have a longer body,a little bit longer legs, and I
just I'm always fascinated withcats.
Um, I've had a couple that dohave hair.
Let's see if it's the saliva.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does it matter then?
Speaker 2 (09:06):
I guess not.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
But you know it's nice if a cat is affectionate
with you, I mean they chose you.
A dog has kind ofindiscriminate love A cat.
You gotta feel special if a catchooses you.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
That's true, mine acts like a dog.
It's true, mine acts like a dog.
It's very, he acts like a dog.
Speaker 3 (09:29):
There are some breeds that are a bit more dog-like.
Speaker 2 (09:32):
Yeah, the sphinxes, the bingles, savannas I've heard
all play like dogs.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, my friend has a Siberian cat that is very
dog-like.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Whoa.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
It's a longer hair.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
Really.
Speaker 3 (09:44):
A little bigger.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
So what other animals are out there that people could
adopt?
Speaker 3 (09:49):
We still have our two bunnies.
Speaker 2 (09:51):
Bunny rabbits.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
However, just because it's Easter time does not mean
you have to get a bunny.
You have to be prepared to takecare of them for its lifespan
Do not just.
Speaker 1 (10:02):
We have a poster in the window that says you
wouldn't buy your child areindeer at christmas time, why
would you buy your child arabbit at easter time, which I
love?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
people just kind of forget.
Well, especially with the size.
They're small so they probablythink kind of like um for like
real low key.
For like three years I keptresearching, uh, sugar gliders.
They're small, they havepersonalities, bond, all this
other stuff.
But the farther you go downthat trail it's like there are a
(10:33):
ton more responsibilities withthose things than what people
think, and I feel like all yousee on the internet is pictures
of the good times.
So what are some hard thingsabout raising bunnies?
What kind of bunnies are theseRun-of-the-mill rabbits Like?
Speaker 3 (10:52):
random size.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Like five, six pounds , something like that.
They're very, very sweet.
We took one of them to IU Eastfor.
Mental Health Day a week or twoago and it was a huge hit and
we just passed it from person toperson and they just held it
and cuddled with it.
It was.
It was very nice.
These are sweet rabbits.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
Are they like?
The got kicked out of 4-H, sonow they're at the.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
I don't know how we acquired them, really.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I think we got the mom too.
The mom and two siblings, butthe mom was old and didn't last
very long, but the two siblingswe still have and we just want
them to get a really good home.
We don't really push them hard,but, um, I feel like so many
rabbits don't end up in greatplaces.
You know, people get them, theythink they're cool for a week
or two and then they get stuckin a hutch and never get out
(11:38):
again.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
So so if you were to tell them like this is the top
400 reasons why you should notown one of these, before you
actually do own one of these,what are some things that people
need to really know aboutraising bunny rabbits?
They're not like a dog or cat.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
They still need medical care.
So you need to look intospaying and neutering and
sometimes you have to be reallycareful about putting two
rabbits together.
They can get quite nasty toeach other if you're not careful
.
You know, even just holdingthem properly they have really
powerful back legs and so ifthey kick out when you're not
holding them right, you knowthey can break their back.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
So, but that's about as far as my bunny knowledge
goes.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
Really.
Speaker 3 (12:22):
You need well, I mean a little bit more.
You need to trim teeth um ohwow, that's fun you need to have
you know proper diet.
Um dogs and cats you can kindof just you know if you feed
them your your proper food, it'seasier to kind of do their
husbandry right.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
But bunnies take a little bit more I think of that
we used to have.
We used to say 80%.
There you go, caught one, 80%,timothy.
Speaker 2 (12:46):
Hayes would be there.
Momo, this is Momo.
Come here, momo, hang on, momo.
Speaker 3 (12:53):
You can lay down on the table.
Speaker 2 (12:54):
Let's see, let's see.
Speaker 3 (12:55):
What's up, but kind of going off of the Easter
piggyback.
Another thing to be cognizantof is that a lot of people like
to get lilies around Easter time, and lilies are extremely toxic
to cats.
Even the pollen can kill them,or the water that the lilies
have been in can cause kidneyfailure and kill them.
(13:17):
So if you have a cat in yourhouse and someone gets you
flowers or you bring flowershome, you need to make sure that
they are not true lilies inthere.
There are plants out there thatlook like lilies that are not
true lilies that are non-toxic,but if it's a true lily, that is
pretty bad for them I'm diggingyour curiosity.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's a new studio cat .
Speaker 3 (13:40):
Perfect, perfect, perfect I think joyce you should
talk about.
I mean, we've gotten our firstset of wild orphaned wildlife in
oh yeah, how's that going?
Speaker 1 (14:00):
which were those the?
bunnies, I believe yeah yeah,and they're all gone.
You know, bunnies are thehardest things to raise.
I think if you ask anyrehabilitator, they will tell
you the same thing.
Number one the mama bunny onlycomes at dusk and dawn to feed
the babies when they're still inthe nest.
And people see them in themiddle of the day and they think
, oh, they're orphaned, you know, or something must have
happened to the mom and theyscoop them up and and I don't
(14:20):
care how careful you are, howgood a rehabilitator you are, so
often, very often they die andI've had situations where I
think, oh, they're this big,maybe one or two more days and
that will be time to let them go, and two more days that you
just find them dead and they'rejust very, very difficult to
raise.
(14:43):
So advice is unless you know forsure that that mom is gone and
one way to tell that is the momplucks fur from their tummy and
covers up the nest or the babiesso if you think that they've
been orphaned and you cover itup and you put a couple of cross
sticks on top of it, you shouldbe able to know by morning if
the sticks are moved.
Then maybe there's a real goodchance that that mom is still
around.
That's a fun fact.
(15:05):
I think about that because yousee that a lot, and you see that
a lot when you're mowing, yeah,yeah, I don't know if this is
true or not.
It seems kind of ridiculous,but another rehabber told me
that rabbits are getting sosmart that they are nesting
closer and closer to homes, eventhough it's a domestic
situation.
They'd rather take that chancethan leave them out in the field
where coyotes foxes otherwildlife can get them.
(15:27):
Like I said, I don't know ifthat's true or not, but yeah,
I've seen that before mowing.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Uh, luckily I've never.
They never jumped up, so but itdoes kind of scare you and
you're like I kind of need tomow the yard.
Just got to be careful and I'veseen them on Peacock Road in my
house in town, so they'll do itanywhere.
Yeah, they will.
They'll put them anywhere.
What other wildlife have yougot recently?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
It's just about the time of year when we'll start
getting them in droves.
We get an awful lot of babyraccoons, and that's another
thing that can very often beavoided.
People we get an awful lot ofbaby raccoons, and that's
another thing that can veryoften be avoided.
People hear something in theirattic and they think, oh, it's a
raccoon, so I'm going to set atrap for it.
And so they trap the mom andthey take it out 20 yards or 20
miles or something like that,and then the next day they hear
baby raccoons crawling.
(16:16):
So then they call us, and babyraccoons are a lengthy, lengthy
rehabilitation.
They would stay with their momtill they're five or six months
old, and so we have to keep themsometimes four or five, six
months old till they're that oldbefore we let them go.
So it's.
It's a lengthy process.
The easiest thing to do saveyour money from pest companies
(16:37):
and stuff like that is, if youhear something in your attic,
take a loud radio play it upthere turn all the lights on.
I've even heard soak towels inammonia and put them upstairs in
a bucket because they don'tlike the smell.
They will take their babies andgo, so that's the easiest, most
humane way to do it.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Wow, is it hard to do you ever get to that?
Six months, five, six monthswhere they're like no, it's
warmer in here, or somethinglike that?
Is it hard to get them to adapt?
Speaker 1 (17:07):
By no, it's warmer in here, or something like that.
Is it hard to get them to adapt?
By the time they're adolescents, we put them outside in an
enclosure and we don't pay anyattention to them after we are
done bottle feeding them.
After that, we just let themgrow feed them water and clean
up after them.
And they are so wild, usuallyby the time it's release time.
We have to net them or trapthem, and that's the way we want
it.
We want them to take them ortrap them.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
And that's the way we want it.
We want to, you know, want themto take them out in the woods
and and be so wild that thatthey don't want to be around
people or they're afraid ofpeople.
It's not easy on us, but it'sthe best thing for the raccoons.
So backing up, if people arewatching this that watched our
fundraiser, what was the story?
What was the raccoon's name?
Spike, so what was his story?
Speaker 1 (17:44):
Spike came to us with a litter as a tiny, tiny
raccoon and he was just a littlebit deformed.
He was short-statured, his legswere too short and he couldn't
climb well.
So we had him, since he wassmall.
So he's just a big mush ball.
He's like having a puppy orsomething like that.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
He can't survive at all.
So was yeah, so was yeah, wow,and I think he's eight or nine
now.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Because, he's just as chill as this.
That's not a reason to have apet vaccine.
That's true.
It's illegal.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It's not good.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
We have two right now .
Speaker 2 (18:17):
Everything that you do is legal.
Everything's permitted,everything's.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
I did have in Michigan where I lived.
I was seeing a lady for her dogand then all of a sudden she
said are you a narc?
I'm sorry what she goes?
Are you a narc?
I go?
No, she goes.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I have a pet raccoon well, I have ties to something
that's a chimpanzee yes, yeah,but there are right ways and
wrong ways to do it.
Speaker 1 (18:44):
You can get a domestic bred raccoon.
It'll cost you a few hundreddollars, but it's legal to do
that and you have to do theright medical thing.
You have to take him and havehim examined once a year and buy
all the permits and all that,but just to get one from the
wild and try to keep it.
That's with a skunk or a possumor anything.
Speaker 2 (19:11):
Or a squirrel, possum or anything, or squirrel, no
matter what it is, it's notlegal, no matter how cute the
youtube videos are right, andthat's the problem.
Too many of these videos onsocial media have animals being
cute, even big tigers in umdubai, like they'll have pet
tigers and they're like lokiattacking them on.
I'm like no, see this.
See, that's why he sees himself, he sees himself now the cat
can when you at buddy, yeah, sothis pet's adoptable.
(19:34):
He likes being on camera.
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Keep him away from your TV.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Keep him away from your TV.
He's funny and his name andeverything again is momo momo
momo curly mo.
Speaker 3 (19:59):
That was great um choice.
You can maybe talk aboutfledgling birds and how they're
often brought to us and they'renot truly orphaned.
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Yeah, a lot of most of them, I would say, aren't
orphaned.
I mean, unless you see that'sgot a broken leg fluttering a
wing or something like thatbleeding or a fledgling.
Fledgling on the ground.
They've left the nest.
Oh, okay, most of the time theparents are around, okay, and
people pick them up way too fastand bring them to us.
And we've had a lot ofsituations.
I've called them and I said youknow why did you bring us this
(20:23):
bird?
There's nothing wrong with it,or doesn't seem to be anything
wrong with it, and taking itsometimes many miles back to
where they found it, walk out ofthe car and mom comes
fluttering down once the babychirps.
So you just got to give it sometime.
Speaker 2 (20:36):
Right, but nature takes its course.
It's easy because you know allthese animals are cute, adorable
.
So people just go oh, the mom'sgone, I'm going to rescue it.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Here you go Big deer.
No, you just messed it upactually.
Oh, deer Fonz, you get a lot ofdeer.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
We get a lot of Fonz and they're very difficult to
raise too.
Memorial Day is very close towhen a lot of Fonz are born and
mom takes the Fonz and finds anice, quiet place for it and she
beds it down and then she goesoff.
She might go off for 12, 14hours doing her own thing and
(21:12):
then come back for the fawn andcemeteries are very, very busy
at memorial day and you knowthat was a quiet, nice place to
put the fawn until memorial dayweekend came along.
So, um, we've taken a lot offawns back and returned them to
where they came from.
But the best thing is just to.
I mean, if you don't seebleeding or broken legs or
something like that.
Speaker 3 (21:26):
Just leave it alone.
Yeah, I think you know thefawn's ears.
If they're curled back thatmeans they've maybe been left a
little bit longer and they'redehydrated.
But I think you know, the firstfew days of life the fawn has
no scent imparted on it, sothey're by themselves, but
they're not attracting anypredators because they don't
have a scent to them.
Speaker 2 (21:43):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
I've even heard that moms, if they have twins or
sometimes even triplets, willpark them different places so
that if a predator comes alongit only gets one.
It's kind of morbid.
It's kind of like which one'smy favorite kid?
You're airing the spare which?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
one's my favorite kid , which one's the runt of my
kids.
We're going to put you closerto right you're gonna take one
of these, take the sister, I'lltake one.
Um, that's fascinating, Ididn't know you got ponds.
Um how's ozzy is.
Uh, what's what's.
Speaker 1 (22:18):
What's her situation ozzy is a mess right now.
Ozzy's built a nest.
We're giving her sticks everyday that she puts in her great
big nest.
It's like this big around.
So I think she's probably shemay lay an egg, but she's flying
at us when we go into herenclosure because she's hormonal
and yeah.
Wow, so we were going to bringher to the event, but we're
(22:41):
thinking having second thoughts.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Right, this is Momo.
Momo needs a home.
Speaker 3 (22:47):
Momo says adopt me, I'm going to sit pretty we're
thinking, having second thoughtsabout it.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
This is Momo.
Momo needs a home.
Speaker 3 (22:52):
Momo says adopt me, I'm going to sit pretty, for the
camera Are there.
Adoption fees $75 for most ofour cats, and then dogs are
about $100.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
But we usually give you a discount if you get more
than one.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Okay, I see, and the fees are because you provide
such great medical care andeverything else.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
They're completely vetted, vaccinated, spayed,
neutered um feline leukemia fivtested microchipped and we
actually lose money on everysingle cat.
Speaker 1 (23:19):
We have way more in the cat then.
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Yes, then we get back really just want to help the
cat.
So, speaking of losing money,do you have any special events
coming?
Speaker 3 (23:27):
up.
We do um april 4th, friday,april 4th, from 7 to 10 pm is
our first ticketed fundraisingevent whiskers, whiskey and wine
be held at forest hills.
we have blue buffalo as ourtitle sponsor for the event.
Um, we also have primax earlywine, pest control and bed bath
(23:49):
and biscuits as our sponsors,and it will feature live and
silent auction items.
We'll have heavy hors d'oeuvresthe rso are providing and have
donated some musicians for theevening as well, and we'll have
specialty animal-themedcocktails.
(24:09):
The first hour of the eventwe'll have our wildlife
ambassadors out minus Ozzy, andtwo of our ambassadors, nigel
and Opal, are going to showcasetheir artistic ability and they
have made some original artwork.
(24:36):
It's only going to be one peranimal.
It'll be nicely framed.
Suzanne Cox is framing for usand those will be auctioned off
and so if you go to our Facebookpage, we are kind of showcasing
some of our auction items andsome of our sponsors.
We have some pretty cool liveauction items.
You can get a private chef tocome to your house.
You can get.
Are you going to jump?
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Right into the screen , because as soon as he came
back up on the screen he waslike whoop.
Speaker 3 (25:04):
What Is that mean?
Um we've got, um we have a tripto.
Scotland to the St Andrews golfcourse for four people for five
nights that we're auctioningoff.
Um, so we've got.
We've got some really awesomeitems.
Um, I think it's going to be alot of fun.
Um, go to our Facebook page.
(25:24):
We'll have a link where you canpurchase tickets If you can't
attend but would still like todonate.
That link also works just finefor that too.
So, yeah, I'm really excited.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Very cool.
Speaker 3 (25:39):
It will hopefully become a yearly event.
Speaker 2 (25:42):
Right, because there was nothing like that for these
little fellas, because this oneneeds a camera.
This one needs a camera.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
Yeah, you're a star bud.
Speaker 2 (25:54):
He could have his own live stream.
The Momo cam We'll twist theEarth cam around and the Momo
cam.
This is Momo.
He would like to be adopted.
Actually, I think he's justreally intrigued.
That's cute.
(26:14):
So they can buy tickets online,they can make donations online
and it all goes to the AnimalCare Alliance Yep, which needs
donations for Momo and hisfriends.
Speaker 3 (26:31):
Unfortunately, these guys and our wildlife are
non-paying customers.
So while we do operate a fullclinic and we try to cater to
lower-income families, ouroperating budget and what we
bring in through the clinicthere's roughly about a $75,000
(26:52):
difference, and so we are doingthese fundraisers so that we can
kind of bridge that gap.
Speaker 1 (26:59):
And most of our cats come to us in need with no
owners.
They not only need to be spayed, neutered, vaccinated and all
that stuff, but they um veryoften like chungus wounds
everywhere and they require anintense, sometimes, amount of
medical care which just comesout of our pockets we had one
(27:19):
brought to us today.
Speaker 3 (27:20):
Luckily the woman was able to pay for the care.
Um, but that one has a brokenleg so that one will be getting
its leg amputated.
Um richmond police departmentbrought in one for us and um had
its leg amputated.
They were kind enough to payfor the normal vetting care,
like the vaccines and the, thespay, and then we fundraised for
(27:43):
the amputation so, all of thisbeing said, we have a basically
a pandemic problem ofoverpopulation of cats and
whatnot.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
Um, whether that's people not getting the animal
spayed and neutered, lettingtheir cats go.
I've heard little things, bitsand pieces about a more
progressive approach where we'reattempting to catch, fix and
(28:16):
release type situation.
Do you want to talk about thatat all?
Speaker 3 (28:20):
Sure, we've done several of those events where we
target a colony and we go outand trap them, bring them in
sedate, uh, spay, neuter,vaccinate, flea treat, um.
So we've done, I would say,four large scale ones.
(28:40):
And then we, you know, normalsurgery days.
We'll do a few here, a fewthere, but we had one weekend I
think we did 70, another we did55.
And then there's a couple ofdays where I'm flying solo.
So we'll do, you know, 30, 35.
But it's, it's a lot of work fora lot of people.
(29:01):
The trapping part I'm fortunateor lucky enough that you know I
work on the surgery aspect.
I'm not going out when it'scold and rainy and trying to set
these traps and pick up thecats, and so there's a lot of
man hours that go into doing asuccessful TNR.
We got to know how many catsare in that colony.
You know, if it's a 20 colony,uh, 20 cat colony, and we only
(29:25):
fix five.
We really haven't done anythingto stabilize that population.
So we need someone that'swilling to kind of catalog those
cats so that we know when we goout there how many we need to
catch for this to be successful.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
And then we also need the funds for that right so it
was this casual conversationwith a friend of mine, ed, and
he mentioned that though they,that though they're working on
that through, maybe, the city tofind those colonies, are their
programs maybe about to start?
Speaker 3 (29:59):
In 2024, the city and county had leftover ARPA funds
that were earmarked for animalwelfare, so we were able to use
those funds for a couple of TNRevents.
Those types of funds are notavailable for 2025.
So I think there has to be morecreative ways in order to get
those funds.
While it is not as front andcenter as it was in 2024, there
(30:27):
are people out there within thegovernment and private citizens
that are trying to find asolution.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
Yeah, because eventually it has to come back
to the government coming in,because it's really hard.
I know you can have fundraiserafter fundraiser and everything
else, but um the if it's apandemic situation, then there
needs to be funds coming fromabove us um to help address some
(30:58):
of that stuff.
That way we're not a hundredpercent reliant on donations,
you know.
Speaker 3 (31:05):
Yeah, it's really multifaceted, so is it a good
program.
The TNR is really the onlysuccessful way to deal with them
.
You know a while back theywould try just mass euthanasia.
Speaker 2 (31:19):
Golly, and that didn't work, jim Jones.
Speaker 3 (31:22):
Yeah, and that didn't work.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
That would be sad.
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Relocating Say, okay, I don't want a colony by my
house, so we're going to move it.
Well, you know, another catwill just come in and take up
that territory.
It's called the vacuum effect.
So you know, trying to removethem, whether it's relocation or
euthanasia, doesn't work.
So you just need to get apopulation of cats that cannot
(31:46):
reproduce.
Then they will hold thatterritory and prevent other cats
from coming in and theneventually, eventually, those
(32:08):
cats will kind of naturally ageout.
So it is.
It is not a program that you'regoing to see success in a year
or two.
It's something that needs tohave a long-term plan and a
long-term goal in place, andpart of it is we also need to
get better data collection sothat we can see what we're doing
and compare to five years agoand five years from now what
we're doing and compare to, youknow, five years ago and five
years from now.
Speaker 1 (32:30):
But when you think about the good that can be done
from just one TNR event, I meanit took a lot of people, three,
four, five days to get that 70,you know, 70 trapped 70 cats.
Excuse me, but if you thinkabout each of those cats
producing just one litter offive, that's 350 cats you've
saved, right then.
Yeah, and they're going to makemore than that.
It's not going to be just onelitter, it's going to be that
litter and their kittens andtheir kittens' kittens and it
(32:52):
goes on and on and on.
But so really, if you get acolony under control, you can
get it great success pretty fast, you hear that burn.
Speaker 2 (33:13):
I do the same thing when someone scratches me you're
gonna mess around and I'm gonnahave to adopt you for a single
colony.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
You know, coming in there and trap neutering
obviously does wonders for thatsingle colony.
But as a widespread project,you know it, it's going to be a
lot of work to get Wayne Countyunder control.
Speaker 2 (33:39):
And it's, and it's still costly because of all the
all right he's working, he'sworking, he's working hard.
It's still costly because youstill have all the In supplies.
What does it take to do?
Speaker 3 (33:55):
I mean, we estimate roughly about $70 per cat and it
can go anywhere between $ know40 and 70 dollars.
It depends on how many, howmany volunteers we have that day
versus how many are paid staff.
So I would love to see, uh,that we have a network of vets
(34:16):
that would and a network ofvolunteers that would donate
their time and come and do this.
But right now it's kind offalling on animal care alliance
and so it's.
We're paying our staff to bethere on a saturday and a sunday
to do this.
So obviously that's a lot ofcost.
And then, um, lately, with painmeds, a lot of it's been on
back order, and so that is acostly part of the procedure too
(34:39):
.
But we're not going to dosurgery on an animal and not
provide it the pain meds itneeds.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
I'd be right there with the mass euthanasia.
I feel like my Omo might getadopted out of this whole debut
today.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Now we need to put Chungus on the table.
Speaker 2 (34:58):
He's asleep, oh, he's awake.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah, he's just chilling in the corner.
Speaker 2 (35:03):
He's starting to move a little bit.
Chunkus come here.
Speaker 3 (35:09):
Come on, bubba, should I try and pick you up?
Speaker 2 (35:15):
See if they switch spotlights.
You want my beauty.
How is my doctor going to seethis and yell at me?
Is that your husband, chungus?
Hi, so this is Chungus.
(35:36):
This is the one with the.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
This is the one that had the honey on his chest To
fix his wounds so you can seehow he has a tipped left ear.
So he was originally a colonycat and we tipped the left ear
so that from a distance we knowthat he's been fixed and so if
he's in a trap we can releasehim and not have to sedate and
check to see if he has a tattooor if he's been neutered.
Speaker 2 (36:01):
Got you.
They're still checking eachother out.
What's up, buddy?
Did we wake you up?
Woke him up from his nap?
Look, this one's going to belike I'm the host, you're just
(36:22):
the guest, and this is my show.
This is the Momo show, chungus.
They're so fun Because they'resuch intelligent creatures.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
That's a personality.
There we go.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Uh-oh, it's on.
He's lifting the paw.
Put up the scoreboard to yourcorners what's wrong?
What's wrong?
Momo trying to go?
This is a little bigger thanyou, so, pound for pound,
(37:03):
they're just coexisting rightnow.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
Yes, I acknowledge your presence, but a lot of
times excess cats can be aneighborhood problem too, where
neighbors are kind of againsteach other.
Speaker 3 (37:14):
You're feeding the cats and I don't like it, you
know, and they're coming in myyard and that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
So if you can show that some of these cats have ear
tips, a lot of times that calmsthings down.
You know neighbors will saywell, they're making an effort.
You know, I can see that thiscat isn't going to be leaving
babies in my bushes and thatright, so that's the mark it's
the mark that's the not gettingher pregnant, not getting
pregnant not
Speaker 3 (37:38):
spraying, not spraying and they'll roam a
little less too.
So, um, you know, we're tryingto equip our animal control
officers with deterrent kits sothat if someone calls and says I
have a cat problem, um, theycan go over and say okay, why
don't we make sure your garbagecan lids are more secure and why
(37:59):
don't we set up this likemotion sensor thing for a little
bit?
And then let's go figure outwhere this cat is coming from,
the colony and see if we canwork on getting this colony
fixed so they're less likely toroam in your yard.
So, um, there's a lot of ideasout there to improve the animal
welfare situation here in waynecounty and we just have to work
on implementing them, is it?
Speaker 2 (38:22):
really a problem, like I.
So there's uh, two of them thatwalk across my front, uh, front
of my house, and looks in likethe big window and stuff, and
I'll, uh, I'll take it a littlebit of food from my cat and put
it out there and we'll hang out,it'll, I'll turn my, I'll have
the bubbler on and they'll go upand play in the water and stuff
(38:43):
.
Then they just go on abouttheir day.
But I don't know if they'refixed or not.
That's the problem.
If they're not fixed.
You know, momo, this is great.
Speaker 3 (38:58):
I like his cool confidence.
Speaker 2 (39:00):
Oh yeah, he's better on camera than all of like
everybody I've met well and forwell.
Speaker 3 (39:08):
Another amazing cat we had, but um, he left last on
friday.
Uh, billberry and blueberrywere part of our berry little,
so we had boysenberry,blackberry, blueberry and
bilberry and their mom wasraspberry and gooseberryoseberry
outside.
Oh, and Gooseberry Was he part?
No, but that was, yeah, we haveGooseberry outside, but he's
(39:28):
not related to that litter.
But we took, we thought it wasBlueberry.
It was actually Billberry.
We took them to the mentalhealth day at IU and he was just
a little rock star there justlaying on the tables and
strutting around.
So it's nice having theconfident cats that'll go out
and see your love.
(39:48):
You know there are a lot ofcats Like Chungus has decided he
wants to be a little bitquieter, but he'd probably warm
up real quick in a home wherehe's not so overwhelmed.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
This one's type A personality, momo.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
His tongue's sticking out.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
Was it it was.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
And now that it's getting warmer although I would
advocate we need to do ityear-round but now that it's
getting warmer we definitelyneed to get our pets back on
flea and heartworm prevention.
You know flea and ticks.
If it's warmer than 32 degreesout ticks are active.
So even in during the winter,if you get a warm day, you can
still get ticks, and I would sayin the clinic we still see
(40:33):
fleas nonstop year round.
And so if your pet has fleasyou need to make sure that that
pet plus all of the animals inand out of your house.
So if you have an outdoor dog oran indoor outdoor cat, they're
included they should be on theirflea prevention for a minimum
of three months to get throughthat kind of outbreak of fleas
(40:53):
in the house and then heartworm.
While heartworm can affect cats, it's a bigger problem in dogs
but that's a worm that lives inthe blood that surrounds kind of
the heart and lung, lives inthe vessels and if they get sick
with that they can get a lot ofscarring.
And to treat heartworm onceyou've become infected you're
(41:15):
looking at injections that arearsenic based.
You have to restrict theiractivity for for six months and
so it's much easier to just givethem a monthly pill, and that
monthly pill kills any babies,little heartworm babies that are
floating around in the bloodand heartworms transmitted by
mosquitoes.
So wow, okay it's much cheaperand much easier on your pet to
(41:38):
do heartworm prevention thanheartworm treatment well, that's
like a human health.
Speaker 2 (41:43):
It's much cheaper to be healthy.
Versus medications.
Who is that?
Who is that?
What's up?
Speaker 3 (41:57):
I think someone found a new cat.
That's what.
Speaker 2 (41:59):
I'm thinking.
What was that all about?
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (42:09):
My other one would probably go kind of crazy.
If only there was an option totry them before you buy them you
can always foster to adopt no,no, no, because that's how you
adopt never fails.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, foster fails no , don't do that.
Speaker 3 (42:25):
We are looking for fosters though.
So if anyone ever wants to be afoster, it's very rewarding.
You know Animal Care Alliancestill kind of takes care of the
medical bill aspect.
But then you have a kittythat's not in a sheltered
environment and, as enrichingand clean as we want to be, cats
are stressed out there, sothey're going to be more prone
(42:45):
to getting upper respiratoryinfections.
So if we can have dogs or catsin a home while they're waiting
for their forever home, thatwould be ideal.
So if you ever have anyinterest in fostering, give
Animal Care Alliance a call andwe can set you up.
Speaker 2 (43:02):
Whoa, I felt like I didn't have claws decline.
Speaker 3 (43:08):
Since I've become a vet we've really decreased doing
that yeah, I'm really happyabout that.
That's like ripping yourfingernails off it's not even
your fingernails, it's thatwhole first joint.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
So you are, it is it is a 10 digit amputation.
That's insane.
I'd never do that.
There's no reason, no rhyme, noreason, mine, so he lets me
clip them.
It started when they were ababy.
If you can start them whenthey're a baby, they'll just let
(43:39):
you clip them.
Speaker 3 (43:39):
Or you find a good enough treat.
Speaker 2 (43:41):
I feel like Momo wouldn't.
Momo's up for anything.
Yeah, he's down for a good timetreat.
Speaker 3 (43:43):
I feel like Momo wouldn't Momo's up for anything,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
He's down for a good time.
I'm going to go out later bro.
Speaker 3 (43:51):
Little catnip.
Yeah, it was really long.
Speaker 2 (43:53):
He just said no Chinese food, they're fun.
The next time I'll have youbring the big.
You got any big pit bulls oranything like that out there,
big dogs.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
They're small.
We have Gage Pitch like a boxerpit type thing.
We've got Charm.
That's lab pit, maybe Mulberrysame.
Speaker 1 (44:23):
Mulberry's like 20 pounds.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
She's still a really little dog you can bring some
dogs next time.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
She's been with little kids yeah and cats.
She's good with everybody.
She's a sweetheart and she'sabout a year old, a little over
a year old and let's see, oh, westill have Coral, that's right.
Speaker 2 (44:40):
I forget about Coral cause she's in.
Speaker 3 (44:41):
Foster.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (44:44):
We had some great adoptions.
Recently, though, we adopted abig German shepherd named
Handsome that was found in thebitter cold.
Speaker 3 (44:51):
Oh yeah, I remember, handsome he was at the live
stream event.
Speaker 1 (44:53):
That's right.
Yeah, handsome got a home witha staff member.
It's working out really well.
Speaker 2 (44:57):
Nice.
Speaker 3 (44:58):
Handsome does not like me, so they didn't know he
is not.
So they didn't know he is not.
I'm not his biggest fan.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Huh.
But he only saw me in like avet setting.
Oh yeah, you're stabbing himwith needles.
He's not going to like you.
Speaker 3 (45:15):
No, he is doing great in his new home and then, we
adopted out our husky blue ivy.
She was found by some goodSamaritans, hit by cars, so she
had to have surgery on her hip.
She got spayed and vaccinatedand she went to a wonderful home
that has another husky and acorgi and they did a meet and
greet and got along famously.
Speaker 2 (45:35):
Wow, well, is there anything else?
You want to kind of wrap thisup and run through the event
again?
Speaker 3 (45:49):
Yes, to wrap this up and uh um run through the event
again.
Yes, so whiskers, whiskey andwine.
April 4th, from 7 to 10 pm atforest hills country club, we'll
have some heavy hors d'oeuvresand uh drinks.
Your admission includes aticket for a specialty cocktail.
I think we have the regalbeagle and the fal Falcon are
our two specialty cocktails.
Blue Buffalo is our titlesponsor, so they are definitely
(46:12):
helping us make this eventhappen.
Some wonderful live auction,silent auction pieces.
We will have our wildlifeambassadors there so you can
come meet Nigel and Opal andThornton and Zoya, you know Zoya
.
Speaker 2 (46:28):
I know Zoya.
Speaker 3 (46:29):
Zoya's going to be there and then check out.
You'll be able to see theirartwork that they've produced,
Nigel and Opal.
It'll be a really good time,and doing it for a good cause.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
And hopefully every year it can keep growing and
growing.
Speaker 3 (46:44):
Exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:48):
Very cool.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
Anything else from you.
I think it's all been said yeah, all right.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
well, um momo and chungus chungus is available for
adoption at the animal CareAlliance.
You can download theirapplication online or you can
stop by during business hoursand see these cats no-transcript
(01:16:29):
.
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