Fundraiser Ideas?

Hello to all my Forest Critters viewers!  Hope you’re having a good day today!  I have a favour to ask of you all.  In my high school I'm going to start doing fundraisers soon to help raise money for my local organization that helps to spay/neuter and adopt out feral cats, "Allies for Alley Cats."  You can help me by coming up with some ideas that rowdy high school students might enjoy but are simple and cheap to achieve.  Here are some ideas I have so far and please comment if you think of anything else or have any ideas to add on or to improve my current ones.

Possible School Fundraisers

• Pet photo contest, must donate at least $1 to enter photo.  Photos will be judged, winner gets a gift card (Tim Hortons?).
• Battle of the genders, see if girls or boys can bring in more money.  Winning gender gets jolly ranchers at lunch.
• Beanie bag for a day in class.  Raffle tickets cost a) $0.50 and 5 for $2 or b) $1 each and 5 for $3 (haven't decided which price to use yet).
• Survival game in forest near school on a Friday after school.  To enter you must pay $5 at school (registration fee).  Last survivor gets a gift card (Tim Horton’s?).  After each person is caught (little flags on the belts so no one can cheat and say they weren’t caught?) they must come back and tell us so we can scratch them off the list.  Then they must continue as a predator.

Oh Deer, Another Deer!

Today I had the fortune to waking up to a wonderful sight in my backyard.  My older sister woke me up today (much to my displeasure) and once my eyes opened and I could put together a cognitive sentence she left my room.  Half awake but quickly slipping back under into my dream state, she begins loudly whispering "Hannah there's a deer outside!"  Sure enough I look out my window and there is the most beautiful deer I have seen.  Big, yet surprisingly graceful the creature drifts across our yard gingerly placing her hooves in the snow as she walks.  Her large, ebony eyes were calm and her ears twitched ever so slightly as she approached a cedar and munched on a twig.  At this point my sister is telling the cats not to move or meow and once again whispering loudly for my dad to wake.  Of course though, once my dad wakes up and gets to the window, the deer has disappeared as quietly as she came back into the forest.  I consider myself to be extremely fortunate to be able to wake up to a sight such as that!

Wily Coyote

 For the last couple days, there has been a plethora of prints trailing through my backyard near the tree line.  My suspicions were that it was either a fox or coyote.  It was hard to tell from the prints because they weren’t very clear in the fluffy snow.  

So one night, out of mild curiosity to see if I could catch the culprit, I looked out one of windows behind the house into the forest.  I wasn’t expecting to see anything so when a flash of eyes reflecting outdoors lights and a coyote shaped shadow slinked off into the forest greeted my sights, I was startled.  From that point I became even surer it was a coyote because the coat look more molted instead of a solid colour like on a fox.

It took a couple tries, but finally my trail camera, when it wasn’t covered in snow, got some pictures of the trespasser.  Indeed, it was a coyote!  Really though, it's not such a surprise seeing as the coyote population in my area has exploded.  You can’t go anywhere without seeing one or hearing about one. They’ve even taken to wondering our downtown area.

A warning to those of you with small dogs or cats: if you live near a forest, or anywhere with coyote sightings, keep your pet inside or at least escort it outside.  I'm sick of hearing that coyotes kill people’s pets and it's all the coyotes fault.  This is my opinion: the coyote is a predator, was here first, and hunting is in its nature and any small animals left unguarded are unfortunately fair game in the scheme of nature.  That’s how nature works.  SO KEEP YOUR SMALL PETS INSIDE IF YOU KNOW COYOTES ARE NEAR YOU!

Little Tia Found a Home

T.T. has now had her name changed to something more charming -- Tia.  She’s been moved to her forever home, which just so happens to be with her sister Shylo!  Thank you +Lynn Bos for giving these creatures the home they deserve and for being so patient with these shy-at-first feral cats.

Tia was very snuggly, but once moved she became shy again just from the shock of moving to a new pace.  Her and Shylo play together though and Tia is coming out of her shell nicely.  When her and Shylo are beside each other, Tia dwarfs Shylo incredibly!  Tia definitely still loves her food.

Remember, if you have a chance to adopt or foster a stray or feral cat, do it!  It makes you feel great and it's good to know your doing something to help your community, not to mention giving a deserving animal a wonderful that it deserves.  

Success!

Yesterday we got T.T. back.  Her surgery was successful, she had a more fluid than what they usually find inside, but the vet said that could've been because she was in heat, it's just how she normally is or something else.   She was extremely afraid when she got home -- I don’t think being drugged earlier helped.  But she's doing much better tonight and I even got her to purr and rub against me for a while.  I'll get pictures tomorrow (I didn't today or yesterday because she was still fairly freaked out) and then post them!

T.T. Is On Her Way

Today I called the vet and asked about their spay and neuter program.  Thankfully they have one and it only costs approximately $150 to get a female spayed!  Seeing as my neighbourhood has generously already covered $100 of the cost, we're doing good!  I've caught T.T. and she's currently in a dog kennel in the spare bedroom until tomorrow when she goes in for her surgery.  I'll let you all know how it goes tomorrow evening!  Maybe I'll get a picture of two as well of her for all of you.

Gender Dilema

Today while I was feeding Kitten and T.T. (I got a large donation of cat food and I would like send a HUGE thanks to Liz who donated all of it!) I discovered some shocking news.  All parents want to know the gender of their baby, and with T.T. sort of being my like my child of course I wanted to know the gender!  Hoping for a boy though because then it would cost less to fix, I was somewhat disappointed to find that she was a girl.  Girls are great of course, except for the fact they can cost twice to triple the cost of a male to get fixed because it’s a major invasive surgery.  Luckily, I still have that hundred dollars from fundraising in my neighbourhood to use and hopefully one of the vet clinics around can give me a discount again.  It'll take some phone calls all around town to arrange everything but I swear I will get this last kitty spayed and end the overpopulation in my neighbourhood!

Wish me luck and remember to vote (look to the sidebar on the right) :)

Voting

I will explain the voting.  So, for blogs there is an option to let ads appear on them.  You can be paid for allowing these ads on your website.  Here is the question for you viewers: do you want ads on my blog with all the money going to the feral cats or would you rather there be no ads?  As the viewers, this is for you guys to decide.  Please vote!  Just click yes or no on the right to let me know what you think!

Unforeseen Issues

T.T. to the left & Kitten on the right.

T.T. and Kitten never seem to leave the comfort of the back doorstep anymore, although I can’t blame them when delicious food scraps are brought to them every morning from breakfast and dinner.  I have no problem with this whatsoever (except maybe the minor annoyance when T.T. tries to bite my toes every time I go out).

One unforeseen issue with them living there is that one of my cats, the ginger tabby Oliver, has been getting extremely frustrated!  As a male cat, and even though he's neutered, he still wants to protect his territory.  He stands there at the window and watches them with unblinking, glaring eyes – sort of unnerving even for me the way he has such a hatred for them.  

The fact he can’t attack them is causing a mess of problems.  The main one is that due to misplaced aggression (he can’t attack those cats so he is taking his anger and territorial frustration out on others) because now he's attacking my sister and chasing the other cat, Tucker, all the time around the house.  I'm hoping when winter strikes the feral cats will move somewhere warmer in the forest and Oliver can have some peace of mind and my sister won’t have to watch her back for a prowling ginger cat who wants to rip her face off (okay, he's not that aggressive, but still fairly scary).  Well, I guess it’s a waiting game now...

The Spy Cam

My spy camera ran out of batteries.  I takes more than one would think it a tiny trail camera would be able to fit, alas it is many many batteries.  Therefore, I must find a copious stash of batteries somewhere in my house to get it back in action.  I shall look tomorrow, wish me luck!

ATTACK!

You may think differently, but if I'm not mistaken that is a rabbit foot and tail.  This picture suggests that either the rabbit:

a) Jumped at the camera and smoked it's head on the pole the trail camera is on

b) Narrowly missed the pole while jumping at the camera or

c) The rabbit was attacking the camera.  

Which do you think it was?  Let me know in the comments!

Cat Pyramid

     Kitten and T.T. seem to live on the back step now.   It’s getting colder so usually they cuddle up together to preserve some sort of heat.  I guess stacking on top each other works too!  This was probably a once-in-a-life-time sort of thing, T.T. will probably never stack himself on his mom again, but I'm glad I got a picture!

     Kitten has grown to like T.T. and shares her food with him.  Before, she'd shove him away and wouldn’t pay him much attention at all.  A great stress has been relieved from me knowing that she'll share food with him and that she cuddles with him as well.

     Unfortunately, T.T. gets very impatient when I'm feeding him.  Just last week I was standing a foot in from the doorway and throwing some sausage pieces out.  Apparently I wasn’t throwing fast enough because T.T. ran inside the house and scratched me.  I couldn't believe it!  This feral cat ran into the house and scratched me!  Anyway, that hasn’t happened since – except he's taken to biting your toes when you walk outside.  He creeps up on them and nips as if to tell you if you don’t put the food down faster, there’ll be dire consequences.  Wearing crocs has saved my precious digits on multiple occasions.  After the incident with Tucker attacking my hands, I'm going to avoid getting cat bites as long as possible!

Shilo Pictures

I promised some pictures of Shilo, so here they are!

This one is my favourtite!

Just relaxing and hanging out.

Whenever she something new, this is how she reacts.

Cartwheel time!

Jumping to get the toy.

What a pretty pink tongue you have there Shilo.

Food = The Way to Tame a Cat

As you can see in the picture, Kitten is back and hungry again!  I can now pet her once more, almost everywhere, without her getting too freaked out.  Another neat fact, she knows her name.  If you stand outside and see her in the distance and call, "Kitten!" she'll come trotting over to you expecting some food for her troubles -- of course.  And T.T. is also coming along.  While he ate at the food dish I managed to get a few strokes onto his silky coat before he got a little freaked out.

Blast From the Past V: Little Birdie

Not very long ago (maybe a couple weeks ago?) my cats where going crazy around one of the windows.  Me, being the inquisitive type of folk, approached the wound-up felines to see what all the kerfuffle was about.  It was not extremely surprising to see a chickadee perched on the windowsill outside stunned.  

Birds hit our window often enough, although usually one of the feral cats takes them before anything can be done.  This tiny little bird just sat there with beady eyes calmly acknowledging the cats and I.  I couldn’t leave it there to be cat food after the way it looked at me.  So, I went outside and then approached the bird, my cats following every movement through the window.  

Holding my hand up to the fragile creature it hopped onto my hand willingly where it perched for an extended amount of time.  I couldn't believe this avian had just climbed aboard my finger and stood there.  I wish I had my camera with me to capture the moment -- but of course when I needed it I didn’t have it!  

After a couple minutes the bird cocked it's head toward me and looked at me with beaming eyes before excreting waste into the palm of my hand and flying away.  Yes, the bird I possibly saved the life of pooped in my hand and then fluttered away like nothing every happened.  Some thanks I get.  Yet I do feel privileged to have held a wild creature that had no contact with humans whatsoever before that point in time perch on my hand.  I hope everybody gets to experience a moment like this at least once in their life.  It truly is something magical.

Kitten Update!

Miley has in fact found her forever home!  She's living with my friend on her farm to be a mouser.  I'm sure Miley won't disappoint.  Toy mice never stood a chance against her fanged jaws of doom.

Shilo is doing amazing.  Every second all she wants to do is cuddle, play and cuddle some more.  I find it amazing that one of the shyest of the feral kittens turned out to be the boldest and friendliest.  I'll post some more pictures of Shilo in the next coulpe days.  Her not standing still doesn't make it easy!

Soon

Hey everyone!  I have a lot of homework I'm bogged down with tonight, but tomorrow I will post an update on the all the feral kittens!  Also, there'll be a "Blast From Past" about a bird I got to hold.

Staring Contest

     Fun fact about cats (and most animals) is that when eye contact is made it's initiating a challenge.  Most domestic animals will stare at you and then look away because they really don't want to fight you.  It also means that they’re accepting your dominance.  

     As you all know, I dislike Tuckercat because when he appears, bad things follow behind him in a trail of evil.  For example: my cats will fight each other if he's at the window, he attacked both my cats and he's the reason my finger swelled up.  Whenever I see him in the backyard I encourage him to leave with a shout and bluff charge.  You may think I'm mean, but if a dog attacked your child, would be so forgiving?  Unless you despise your offspring, you will not be forgiving; my cat is like my son and I love him dearly.  

     Anyways, Tuckercat was lying in the grass beside our deck.  I didn’t feel like going outside – so I just stared at him with an unnerving glare of steel through the window.  Finally he turned his head and glared right back.  We stared for a while at each other until he accepted my dominance and got up and left.  Therefore, we avoided physical conflict.  All in the mind and eyes!  Next time someone I don’t like bothers me; I might try this trick on them as well!

Kitten is Back!

Sorry about the long wait for a new post everyone!  Unfortunately my laptop broke and I had to send it away to get fixed.  Fortunately though it's now fixed!

Kitten and T.T. frequently visit the house again to grab scraps from dinner or some dry food.  T.T.'s colouring is very interesting.  It's a tabby colour but with light orange patches all over his body.  Kitten is very skittish now after her surgery -- but I'm sure I'll have her eating out of my lap soon enough!

Beautiful Birds

A pileated woodpecker for those of you who are curious.
It's not the same one as in my yard though.

Green heron

This morning as I was getting ready for school, as I walked by the windows looking out to the forest I saw (to my astonishment) a pileated woodpecker at one of the bird feeders! Surprisingly, it wasn't at the suet feeder but a nyjer and safflower mix.  I've seen little hairy and downy woodpeckers, but they're nothing in size compared to this monster.  The bird was almost as long as the feeder, and when it took off it's wing span seemed huge!  A beautiful green heron was wading around looking for a meal as I walked back from gym outside.  Now I know that the green heron wasn't in my forest, except I still thought it was cool that I had seen two uncommon birds (for my area in Canada) in one day.  These birds made a gloomy day, from the large amount of homework I've been assigned, to a better one.  When you see an animal as magnificent as these, you realize how beautiful this world really is and that we should appreciate the little things more in life.  Next time you see a astonishing bird or animal or something else, take a moment and think about how  fortunate and lucky you are to have witnessed such a thing.