Special to the Aroostook Republican
I was cleaning the foster room when a young boy walked by the garage. He stopped and was curious about the kittens. He asked lots of great questions. He was visiting his grandparents and appeared to be a talkative, mature 4th grader at Teague. We discussed the CPR education program. He asked if CPR would visit his class this fall.
Contributed photo
Kobe, a neutered one-year old, short and silky black/white hair, male cat at Caribou Pet Rescue (CPR), has recently been treated for depression by being transfered to a caring foster family for a one month R & R. Kobe is very clean, extremely loving and will not fight with other cats. Kobe has all shots and is leukemia tested. Kobe is gentle, tolerate of children and not afraid of dogs. CPR invested a total of $130.00 plus dollars to prepare Kobe for adoption and the CPR adoption fee is only $75.00. Kobe is a sweetheart.
We talked about cats (really!). Finally, he felt he should better go home. “Well,” he exclaimed. “This is turning out to be quite a day. People always ask me what I want to be when I grow up and I never know what to say. But the second I walked in here — I knew! I want to rescue animals! Yes,” he nodded as he looked around again. “This has been quite a day.”
It has been an active week for CPR. The shelter is full and we have over 50 animals in foster care as well. More than 40 of these animals are young kittens. They are beautiful and many are ready for adoption at 8 and 9 weeks of age.
I have 16 foster babies at my home that are too young for adoption. They are orphans between the ages of 4 to 6 weeks. The first week they were here, they were quite ill and the work was exhausting. Now these foster babies are bright-eyed and full of mischief.. There are 8 tiger kittens, 2 calicos, 3 gray, a torti and 2 Maine Coons.
CPR currently has a huge collection of kittens in every color possible. All of them are clean, sweet and healthy. They all need homes.
If I ever questioned the need for starting CPR, I would only have to watch these babies play for 2 minutes. When they play, my heart melts with joy. They are so innocent and trusting even though most came from horrible environments.
Even those from feral mothers are now trusting and are racing, tumbling and playfully wrestling with the others. It doesn’t take long for them to learn new tricks. When a kitten discovers a trick, he teaches the others and soon the entire group joins in.
The orphans are doing well with litter box training. It is a riot when one little guy takes time out to potty and his siblings end up running right into the litter box with him. In their mind, if it isn’t their need, it isn’t important enough to stop the game. They need to work on their basic communications skills.
We currently have a hugely pregnant young cat in need of a foster home with a quiet area that she can relax in and have her babies. Please call the shelter to set up an interview if you are interested in becoming a foster family.
If you made out an application and have not been called yet, please check in with us. It gets so busy that sometimes paper trails get set back for a while hands on work with the animals take priority.
We continue to collect returnable bottles. Your bottle change spay/neuters many precious animals. With the help of the Caribou Chamber of Commerce bottle drive this week, 88 Bennett Drive Redemption gave us $228.50 in bottle change. I don’t have the figures from Empty Jug and Dodo’s yet.
Caribou Pet Rescue,the Emergency Management (EMA), C.E.R.T. personnel, Caribou Police Department, Caribou Fire and Ambulance are joining “Caribou Cares about Kids” week. We are adding in “Caribou Cares About Kids and Pets.”
We are planning a big shindig on August 9th. The Caribou Court house parking lot will be covered with tents. On one side, Dr. James Hotham will be conducting a microchip clinic and a rabies & distemper clinic.
On the other side of the tent, the Caribou Police Dept will be conducting a children’s Iris Scan from the National Missing Children’s Network. And in the middle, well, maybe I’ll just let you ponder about that for a while. You will like it.
So mark August 9th, from 10-1 pm for the CPR Courthouse Kids & Pets Fair. You will not want to miss it. Channel X will be on site from 10 am to 1 pm.
Call 498-3800 for information or check out our pets at www.cariboupetrescue.petfinder.com Caribou Pet Rescue is located at 6 Richards; and the mailing address is PO Box 488, Caribou, ME 04736 Neuter and Spay – It’s the ONLY Way.
