Since our last Paint Lake newsletter, The Cats of Paint Lake has moved its rescue operations into our new location at 1028 Paint Lake Rd. Our rescue centre is set up as a central hub for intakes, receiving donations, and a place where we can assess each cat or kitten that comes into our care. Many of the cats in our centre free roam, while others are kept comfortably housed until they can be taken to the vet for vaccinations and exams, along with spay or neuter surgeries and micro-chipping when the time comes.
We have had a wonderful response from our community, and many volunteers have offered their time, experience, skills, and their hearts and minds to help facilitate this project. We are enormously grateful for everyone who has offered to help! We will need additional volunteers as we come into the spring and summer months, which is when the cats are out there breeding and having kittens! (see below for contact information).
The rescue centre will need Cat Companions to come in and spend time with cats, feed, water, clean crates, litter boxes and feeding stations. It is important that the cats get used to seeing people, hearing conversation and other sounds of life in a home, and interacting with humans. Some of our cats are very friendly and will want to cuddle (and get in your way while you work), others are not so friendly, but they will need attention and time, more than the others, to help them begin the long process of socialization. It is our intention to get as many cats as possible out of the feral reproductive cycle, and into loving homes. It takes time , love and effort, but it’s worth it.
We are looking for foster homes to place cats who are getting ready to learn how to live in a house, interacting with humans and other animals. It is the last leg on their journey toward adoption, and it is an amazingly rewarding experience. If you are interested in welcoming a cat or a pair of cats into your home, but don’t want a lifetime commitment, then fostering may be for you!
There are other ways you can help – Drivers, Committee members, Fundraisers, Crafty people, builders, people to help homeowners and businesses to humanely trap cats and bring them to the centre for assessment.
We need everyone to help us watch for cat activity, and report it on our website at http://www.thecatsofpaintlake.ca/catventory-report. We will go in and carefully trap the animals, check for microchips, and then assess their needs, socially as well as medically.
As always, we need donations of food, supplies, and cash to keep the vet bills paid! Donations can be sent by etransfer to catsofpaintlake@gmail.ca, or through our gofundme page. For more information about The Cats of Paint Lake or our activities, please see our website, facebook page or group, instagram page, or youtube channel!
If you have something you would like to offer toward this project, we will always be glad to hear from you!
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The Cats of Paint Lake is a federally-incorporated not-for-profit organization based in Dorset and serving the communities Lake of Bays/Muskoka and the Haliburton Highlands.
We can be reached at https://www.thecatsofpaintlake.ca, catsofpaintlake@gmail.com https://www.facebook.com/thecatsofpaintlake https://www.facebook.com/groups/thecatsofpaintlake, or by phone/text at (705) 854-0827
