Day 162: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 162: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

It’s that time of the year again. The Toronto Cat Rescue (TCR) is hosting their annual Bowl-a-thon to raise funds for the cats and kittens of Toronto.

Since Dieter and I love both cats and bowling, we registered for this event and are active fundraisers.

The first year we took part, our group was very small, and the organization barely raised $6,000. Last year, the group counted over 200 people and we raised over $40,000.

How does the Toronto Cat Rescue? It’s not a cat shelter in the traditional sense of the word. Cats are not housed in cages, but rather with foster families, their picture is taken and displayed on the TCR website, after which the cats are up for adoption.

The organization needs money though. Before each cat or kittens goes to their new home, they are spayed/neutered. If a cat or kitten is sick, it’s taken to a veterinarian.

If you can spare a few dollars, I would kindly ask you to make a donation. This can be done in three ways:

Canada Helps:

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/toronto-cat-rescue/p2p/bowlathon2019/team/paws-claws/captain/conny-manero/

My PayPal account:

conny.manreo@gmail.com

or via a bank transfer.

A donation of $20 or more will get you a tax receipt.

The cats and kittens of Toronto are counting on you and thank you in advance.

Day 132: Meet Greyson

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 132: Meet Greyson

Isn’t he cute? His name is Greyson and we adopted him from a Toronto Cat Rescue foster mother last Friday. Let me explain how this adoption came about.

On December 4, 2017 Mickey, our 13 year old tuxedo cat crossed Rainbow Bridge quite expectantly. He had trouble breathing, we took him to the vet thinking he had a cold, but he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure. To ease his suffering we had him put down right there and then.

His passing left such a void that after two weeks I started looking to adopt another cat. While I would have liked to go for an adult cat, I doubted that the rest of our gang would accept such a newcomer. So it would have to be a kitten. 

I visited the Toronto Cat Rescue website and found Ella, a beautiful white kitten with grey patches and a grey tail. We adopted her on January 4^th from Jackie, her foster mom. Ella was renamed Halley and Jackie, her foster mom and I stayed in touch with emails and photos.

   

Two weeks ago, Jackie sent me a picture of Truffle, a kitten she was fostering. As soon as I saw Truffle I thought ‘OMG that is such a cutie’. The following Friday afternoon we visited Jackie for afternoon tea and we got to meet Truffle. He was even more adorable for real than in his picture and a real heart stealer. The long and the short of it is … we adopted Truffle last Friday and renamed him Greyson.

When I introduced Greyson to Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley things went more or less as expected … Charlotte was terrified of the newcomer and ran to my bedroom; Gabriel took one whiff of the little one and decided he wasn’t worth bothering with; Holly hissed and turned her back on him, while Halley looked like she’d seen a ghost.

From what I read online, a new pet should be kept in a separate room and introduced to resident pets gradually. This is probably good advice, but I couldn’t find it in my heart to lock the little one in the bedroom and leave him all alone. I would just have to chance it. I wasn’t worried, I knew I had to give Charlotte, Gabriel, Holly and Halley time to get used to this new addition to the family, but I was confident that everything would be alright.

After just 24 hours, Charlotte, Gabriel and Holly started to warm up to Greyson. They were still weary of him, but their curiosity got the better of them. Halley on the other hand wanted nothing to do with this newcomer, she didn’t even want to stay in the same room as him. Practically the whole of Saturday she spent on the balcony, only venturing inside to eat and use her litter box.

Oh dear, I thought, this is not going well. I had expected that Halley would embrace little Greyson as a friend, since they are both kittens. Admittedly, Halley is 10 months old and Greyson is 8 weeks old, but technically they are both kittens.

Then suddenly on Sunday Halley had a change of heart. Not only did she come inside, she actually sought out Greyson and started keeping an eye on him.

Today, a week later, Halley and Greyson are inseparable. Don’t ask me what happened but as from last Monday those two are the best of friends. Where you see Greyson, you see Halley, where you see Halley you see Greyson and on the rare occasion that Greyson makes a dash for freedom, Halley goes looking for him.

Just goes to show, I didn’t follow the new pet introduction rules, but as predicted, everything turned out to be okay.

Day 106: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 106: Toronto Cat Rescue Bowl-a-thon

Some time in March, the invitation arrived to register for the Toronto Cat Rescue’s 14^th annual Bowl-a-thon. I immediate replied and registered Dieter and myself with the team name ‘Alley Cats’.

The only requirement to join the Bowl-a-thon was that each participant had to raise a minimum of $100. That’s not much, you might think, but you’d be surprised how tight-fisted people are where it comes to donating.

Other than that, I hate asking people for money, especially people I don’t know. But for the good of the cats, I bit the bullet and in the end, I raised quite a considerable sum.

Then last Saturday was the big event. Over 100 cat lovers made their way to Kennedy Bowl for the Bowl-a-thon. Everyone handed over their donations, were issued a purple T-shirt, along with a tail and cat ears and made their way to the lanes. What a sight it was, purple as far as the eye could see.

The goal was to raise $30,000. In previous years we fell short of that goal by a few thousand. This year we not only met the goal, we exceeded it and raised over $37,000 for the kitties.

As for the actual Bowl-a-thon … Dieter took 1^st place while I came in 2^nd. We received prizes that are kitties are very pleased with. 

Gabriel, Charlotte, Holly and Halley now have two brand new cat baskets, plenty of toys scented with catnip, and a variety of cat food. For us humans, there was a bright pink tote bag, a cat book, coffee, coffee cups, and other goodies.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, let these speak for themselves:

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 76: A new addition to the family

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 76: A new addition to the family

Everyone, meet Halley. Halley was adopted from the Toronto Cat Rescue last Friday.

Originally, her name was Ella and while it’s a fine name, I didn’t really take a fancy to it. In my native language (Flemish) Ella is too close to ‘ela’ a term of caution. When a cat, or dog or a child is about to do something naughty, it is warned with ‘Ela’, meaning … don’t do that, I saw that or something to that effect. So, we started thinking of a different name.

I posted Ella’s picture on Facebook and asked members of two cat groups what they would call this kitten. There were a number of suggestions, but none of them were suitable. Some proposed male names, which were not acceptable as Ella is a girl, others came up with nicknames, which I didn’t consider because I prefer a proper name. My other cats are called Charlotte, Gabriel, and Holly, so Ella’s deserved a proper name too.

Someone suggested watching Ella for a few days and the perfect name would become obvious. As it turned out, it did. The perfect name for our little rascal is Halley, named after Halley’s Comet. Just like the famous comet she’s predominantly white, she has a long tail, and she races around the place.

I’m sure that in the weeks and months to come, there will be plenty of updates on Halley, so watch this space and see our little kitten grow up. For now, enjoy these few pictures and video. 

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Day 9: Animals. Pick an animal and write about it

Day 9: Animals. Pick an animal and write about it.

How about I write not just about one animal, but about four of them? My four cats.

Mickey

Mickey is the eldest and was my parents' cat. When mom died and dad decided to move into a retirement home, a home had to be found for Mickey. I didn’t even try to find a home for him because I knew nothing and nobody would be good enough. Mickey would come to Canada with me. Not only would he be loved and be safe, my dad would have peace of mind that his cat would be happy for the rest of his life.

Mickey adjusted from day one. While he used to be an only child, now he had the company of other cats and assumed the role of papa cat.

Charlotte

Charlotte was born an accident. A couple adopted two cats, they assumed that both were male, but apparently, they didn’t look very closely because sometime later one of the cats was pregnant. Family and friends adopted the kittens, but one kitten stayed behind. The couple was about to contact a cat rescue organization when I showed up. After that, there was no need to contact the organization. I took one look at the kitten and decided that she would live with me.

Despite the love and care Charlotte received, she is a scary cat. Afraid of the vacuum cleaner, afraid of the wind, terrified of thunder, and of a number of other things. You could say that she’s afraid of her own shadow.

Gabriel

Gabriel was born to a breeder of Ragdolls. In principle, I don’t approve of designer cats. Thousands of cats are waiting to be adopted and often lose their life because nobody wants them. So why go spending $1,000 or more on a purebred cat? Not that I did. By pure chance, I came across an ad online of a breeder who finished with the breeding business. When I talked to him he said that he was keeping his cats, but that from now on they would only be pets. However, he did have a kitten left that he couldn’t place. Did I want it? Did I want it! I went over to his place like a bow from an arrow and when I saw the kitten I wondered why nobody wanted this adorable little thing. “He’s not perfect,” the breeder said. “He’s ….” I didn’t hear the rest because I was already cuddling the little one.

Gabriel is a bit of an aloof cat and only wants to be cuddled when it suits him, and only when our hands are clean. I'm not kidding, when I reach for him, he pulls back and sniffs my hand. When he's done sniffing he'll present his cheek. He's very sweet though, every night, around 10:30 he'll jump next to Dieter in the chair and demand to be petted. He looks at Dieter and cries, something that sounds like "Mayo!"

Holly

Holly is the baby of the family. I went down to the management office of our condo building one day and walked in on a conversation that someone had dumped a box of kittens on a ground floor balcony. The woman who had taken the kittens in was looking for good homes for them. Within 24 hours all the kittens had found homes, one of them mine. I took one look at this little fuzzball and decided she could live with us. She received a bath upon arrival, was taken to the vet and declared in perfect health.

Holly's nickname is Ms. Pepperpot. While she's a sweet cat, she does have a bit of a temper. She's very vocal, and growls and even hisses. She hisses especially when she's kissed. For some reason, she doesn't like that.

In addition to these four cats, I am a fundraiser for the Toronto Cat Rescue shelter cats. Every year, for the past ten years I take part in the organization’s Bowl-a-thon. We raise funds for the cats and kittens and then all get together for an afternoon of bowling. This year we raised just under $25,000. Should you wish to adopt a cat or kitten or make a donation, the website is:  https://torontocatrescue.ca/

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Cat anthology

I recently found out, quite by accident, that one of my cat stories was accepted in an anthology book. This was news to me because I hadn’t received an acceptance letter or a disclaimer.

Upon further investigation, it turned out that this was a story I submitted in 2015. When I asked for more information the publisher of the book was rather vague.

What struck me as odd was that I didn’t receive a free copy of the book. The person who published the book told me that, because this book was for the benefit of shelter cats, none of the contributors received anything. At most, contributors could get a free ebook.

This is my opinion is not good business. Yes, to supply every contributor with a real book would require an investment, but $100 investment is sure to pay off. After all, contributing writers would want to show off their work, thus generating sales.

In comparison, just to name a few …

When I contributed to Chicken Soup for the Soul I received 10 free copies.

When I contributed to Green Prints I received two free copies.

When I contributed to The Spirit of St. Louis I received one free copy

Don't get me wrong, it’s not the free copy I’m after, or money from sales, as an animal lover I’m quite willing to do my bit for the adoption of shelter animals, but if one is going to start a project to help them, be professional about it.

For starters, have the courtesy of notifying contributors that their story is accepted and supply them with at least one free book. That one free book might generate ten or more sales.

When I looked up the cat organization proceeds of the book would be donated to, they made no mention of the book. This struck me as odd too.

You would expect that if you were to receive money from a book sale, you would put that book on the homepage of your website along with a link where it could be purchased. You would also write a blog post about it, thanking the publisher and the writers for their effort. As any good marketer will tell you, sales depend on exposure.

Finally, I found it strange that the person lives in Las Vegas but promised the proceeds of her book to a cat organization in Florida. This makes no sense to me.

Once a year I act as a fundraiser for the Toronto Cat Rescue. I live in Toronto so I support this local cat shelter organization. I approach just about everyone to make a donation. Some of my friends, who are scattered in various parts of the world, are nice and send a donation, others decline stating that they support a local organization. Which is their good right. While I appreciate their support, I can understand why someone in Paris prefers to support Parisian animals vs. Toronto animals.

As it turned out, the publisher stated that she would remove my story as she didn’t want to do business with me. Business? What is her concept of business? We were not in business,

to begin with. Business is when money changes hands and that was, or wouldn’t be, the case. This was for charity and where it comes to charity it’s not about the individual, it's about the cause.

Forgive me for being skeptical, but when I hear the word "charity" I'm instantly suspicious. I've seen too much charity fraud to blindly trust anyone.

www.connymanero.weebly.com

Holly's story

 

HOLLY

Two years ago, this little kitten came into our lives. She and her three brothers were left in a box on a ground floor balcony of the condo building where we live.

I had gone down to the management office to hand in our maintenance fee cheque, when I overheard a woman talking about kittens.

Kittens? The conversation immediately had my full attention.

To cut a long story short … I went to the woman’s condo, and there they were, four little kittens playing with a ball. That’s to say, three of them were playing while the fourth one sat on her own.

The playing kittens paid no attention to me, but the sideline kitten come closer, looked up to me and peeped a pitiful “meow”.

Well, that was it, this little one had found a home.
From here on, I'll let Holly herself tell the story … 

SOMEWHAT SCARED I EXPLORED MY NEW HOME.

BEFORE ANYTHING ELSE, I GOT A BATH.

AND THEN I GOT SOMETHING TO EAT

UTTERLY EXHAUSTED, I CURLED UP FOR A NAP

THE NEXT DAY I WAS TAKEN TO THE VET FOR A CHECK UP AND RECEIVED A CLEAN BILL OF HEALTH

I FOUND ALL KINDS OF NICE PLACES TO SLEEP, SUCH AS A COMFY CHAIR

A DESK

DAD'S LAP, AND LOTS OF OTHER PLACES

I EVEN GOT MY VERY OWN BEAR TO SLEEP WITH

I HAD TO GO TO THE VET A FEW MORE TIMES FOR MY SHOTS, AND TO KEEP ME WARM, DAD PUT ME IN HIS JACKET

AS I GREW UP, DAD PLAYED WITH ME

AND SHOWED ME PICTURES ON HIS CELLPHONE

BEDTIME I STILL HAVE MY BEAR FOR COMPANY

ALL TUCKED UP FOR THE NIGHT

THIS IS MOM'S FAVORITE PICTURE OF ME

AUGUST 21, 2014 WAS MY FIRST BIRTHDAY

I ENJOY FLOWERS INSIDE

AND OUTSIDE

WHERE IT COMES TO FISH, I'M UNDER STRICT INSTRUCTIONS THAT I CAN ONLY LOOK, NOT TOUCH

RECENTLY I CELEBRATED MY SECOND BIRTHDAY

SO THAT'S MY STORY

FIRST I WAS A LITTLE KITTEN

AND NOW I'M ALL GROWN UP

By the way, my three brothers found loving homes too.