What We Are Thankful For This Holiday Season

Mom was saying the other day that she has a lot of people to thank for helping her in so many ways during her journey into the feline world.

You have to understand that my human mom went from having cats growing up and into early adulthood – to having no cats from 1978 to 2015 – that’s 37 years with no felines in her life.

Though she was not pet-less during that period, as there was Hank, her beloved Yorkshire Terrier in her life for 16 years, it’s still not the same! Meow!

In January 2015 she adopted me – and everything changed for her – and for me! I guess I should be thanking these individuals too!

Today mom is 100% focused on feline education and giving back to the cat rescue community. She does that through me and this blog as we hope to share with other passionate cat lovers’ topics that are of interest and concern to everyone – food and nutrition, health and wellness and safety as well as cat rescue.

We Would Like to Thank

We have to start by thanking Mercy Garcia and Joan Doljian of TLC Rescue of Weehawken, New Jersey for starting the whole ball rolling. Both Beau and I were found in the streets and rescued by TLC and magically were adopted by our mom, Sherry. It was Kismet she says! 

TLC Rescue works endlessly to find homes for the friendlies after releasing the feral cats back to where they were originally found.

Next up, we have to thank our unofficial uncles – Ranit Lalvani and Mark Brower as well as auntie Christine Thomson for educating mom as to what life is like with a couple of felines in residence seeing as how she had been cat-less for all those years! Our uncles have 7 cats indoors, 2 outdoors and our auntie has 2 indoor felines so mom has great sounding boards to ask questions and get opinions of what to do when Beau and I are behaving badly or fighting too much!

In the area of cat rescue, besides Mercy and Joan of TLC Rescue, we have to give a shout-out to Karen Shinevar and CPAW NJ. Through her organization, Karen is able to provide her community with TNR education to reduce the street cat population and low-cost spay/neuter days with a local vet service group. Karen has provided a lot of insight into cat rescue and how many municipalities think about TNR. Karen advocates with her local townships to get them on board with supporting TNR initiatives. While there have been advances, there is still a long way to go to bring the street feline population growth to zero.

As many of you know, mom has a boutique and Beau and I are her focus group. And mom says we must thank Debbie Cadier of Debbie’s Doggie Delights. She creates single to limited ingredient dehydrated dog and cat treats for the health conscience pet! Be sure to check out her online store!

She has been very generous with her time and input in helping us determine which events we should participate in as there are all sorts of fundraisers, art and music festivals, crafts fairs, etc. and who knows which are the best for cat lovers! It has been a huge help to have someone say “yay or nay”..!

And no thank you list would be complete without thanking the following individuals who have provided education and/or service in mom’s quest to have Beau and I live a holistic and sustainable life:

  • Katrina and Karl of Wholistic Paws in Northern NJ – our raw food go-to pet store with the added benefit of Katrina and her extensive knowledge of cats and dogs.

  • Howard Ratner of Holistic Pet Cuisine in Boca Raton, FL – Howard Ratner and his wife Barbara from Holistic Pet Cuisine who helped mom get launched into the pet industry – market leaders in the raw food diet for many years.

  • Dr. Gerald Buchoff of Little Falls, NJ – Our holistic veterinarian who has been working towards clearing my gingivitis…and teaching mom stuff to do on us! All I know is she taps on my thyroid 10 times every morning!

  • Dr. Karen Becker of Arizona – A holistic veterinarian who publishes a newsletter every day – mom says she has learned so much through the newsletters and recommends that everyone sign up for it! It’s a wealth of information for every pet owner.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!