Cattitude

BIO:

Laurie Melo -  Founder and President.   Laurie has had a love of animals her entire life and has been rescuing them since she was very young. Before founding Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue in January 2003, she volunteered with Safe Haven Animal Sanctuary, NorCal Golden Retriever Rescue and Humane Society Silicon Valley.  In 2001, she was contacted by the founder of Silicon Valley Friends of Ferals asking if she could bottle feed a litter of 3-week-old kittens one of his volunteers had found in a feral colony she managed, and Laurie's life was changed forever. She has personally fostered and bottle fed more than 4000 kittens since that time and got a best friend in Casey Leonardo out of the deal. Laurie currently lives with her very tolerant husband, three rescue dogs, and six cats who she loves dearly. 

Transcript:

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Michelle Fern: Hello, cat lovers, welcome to Cattitude.

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Michelle Fern: I'm your show host, Michelle Fern.

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Michelle Fern: What's better than kittens?

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Michelle Fern: Right, they're adorable, you fall in love with them, but for those of us that know, they are a challenge to take care of.

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Michelle Fern: My guest today is part of the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue, and what they do is just amazing.

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Michelle Fern: I cannot wait to introduce you to her, so stay tuned, we'll be right back.

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Michelle Fern: Hey, Michelle Fern here and you know, saving cats is near and dear to my heart.

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Michelle Fern: Did you know that there is an estimated 70 to 100 million free roaming cats in the United States?

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Michelle Fern: And without spay neuter, that number will keep growing.

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Michelle Fern: Not only does spay neuter mainly reduce the community cat population, but it also keeps cats healthier.

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Michelle Fern: Scooter, the neutered cat, is on a mission to give cats an extra life by making it hip to be snipped.

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Michelle Fern: Visit his website, givethemten.org, to help pioneer a better world for cats.

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Michelle Fern: That's GiveThemTen, spelled out, T-E-N, dot org.

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Announcer: Let's talk pets on petliferadio.com.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome back everyone, I'd like to welcome Laurie Melo.

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Michelle Fern: She is the founder president, does it all, from the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitten Rescue.

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Michelle Fern: Welcome, laurie.

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Laurie Melo: Thank you, glad to be here.

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Michelle Fern: I'm so excited to have you.

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Michelle Fern: So tell everybody, what is the Itty Bitty Kitten Rescue?

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, so it's Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue.

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Laurie Melo: We basically focus on the orphan kittens that don't have mom.

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Laurie Melo: I've started doing this back in 1999.

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Laurie Melo: Somebody brought me a litter of kittens and said, can you bottle feed them?

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Laurie Melo: I said, I could give it a try.

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Laurie Melo: I did it, they survived.

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Laurie Melo: I thought, hey, I'm kind of good at this, and I just started doing it.

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Laurie Melo: So I've been bottle feeding kittens for quite some time.

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Laurie Melo: We started the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue in 2003, and been going ever since.

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Michelle Fern: I want to apologize.

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Michelle Fern: I forgot to say orphan.

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Michelle Fern: So it's the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue.

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Laurie Melo: Right.

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Laurie Melo: Right.

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Michelle Fern: So it is Friday this time.

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Michelle Fern: Sometimes I have Friday days during the week, but this is a Friday.

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Michelle Fern: I want to just talk about what goes on behind the scenes.

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Michelle Fern: People think, oh, kittens so cute, and when you rescue them.

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Michelle Fern: But I know from having kittens born on my doorstep and having to take care of them or help take care of them, that was just a tiny bit.

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Michelle Fern: You have orphan, mine were not orphaned.

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Michelle Fern: So what actually happens?

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Michelle Fern: Do people bring you kittens that they just find?

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Michelle Fern: How does it work?

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, so a lot of times there are kittens that are found outside and they contact us.

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Laurie Melo: And if we have the foster space available, we will take them in.

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Laurie Melo: But for the most part, I'd say 90% of the kittens that we get are coming from high-killed shelters.

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Laurie Melo: So people find them and they take them to the shelters.

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Laurie Melo: And the shelters up until 2010, we're just automatically euthanizing them.

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Laurie Melo: So there was like 3,500 kittens a year at the San Jose shelter being euthanized because they didn't have any resources to care for them.

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Laurie Melo: So we helped develop a rescue network.

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Laurie Melo: And now the shelter has a pretty good rescue network.

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Laurie Melo: And now we're working with other shelters as well.

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Laurie Melo: And we pull these little baby kittens that can't eat on their own, some of them as young as just newborn, like a day old.

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Laurie Melo: And we bottle feed them and we care for them until they're old enough for adoption.

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Laurie Melo: So we mostly get them from the shelters.

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Laurie Melo: But we do take them from the community as well when we can.

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Laurie Melo: There are a lot of kittens that are found out there.

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Laurie Melo: We do try to tell people, just because you find kittens outside doesn't mean that they're orphaned, doesn't mean that they don't have a mom.

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Laurie Melo: Their mom might be out hunting for food or, you know, off to that, you know, scared or something.

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Laurie Melo: So always kind of watch and wait and see if the mom comes back because separating kittens from their mom is not a good thing.

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Laurie Melo: We can do only so much as humans for these baby kittens.

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Laurie Melo: So, you know, we do the best that we can, but we are not an actual replacement for a mama cat.

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Laurie Melo: So there is a lot involved with the kittens are really young, like under a week old, you're feeding them every two hours, sometimes every 90 minutes, bottle feeding them, you have to potty them, you have to keep them super warm.

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Laurie Melo: A lot of times we put them in an incubator, and you know, you don't get any sleep for a long time.

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Laurie Melo: So most of the time in the spring, our fosters don't get much sleep because we're bottle feeding around the clock.

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Michelle Fern: Let's take that as a step back because I've done some research and at first I had no idea, but yeah, you're bottle feeding, you're actually waking up, bottle feeding them, and it's a lot more intense than anybody would imagine unless they do have this information.

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Michelle Fern: And then you have to help them go to the bathroom as well.

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Laurie Melo: Right.

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Michelle Fern: You in a sense, you're playing mom a kitten.

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, we are.

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Laurie Melo: And we occasionally do pull mom cats that are at risk at the shelter too with babies.

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Laurie Melo: And we have fosters that will take a mom cat and babies, which is the best of both worlds because you get to play with the baby kittens and watch them grow, and mama does all the work.

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Laurie Melo: But in most cases, it's hard for us to find homes for those mama kitties when the kittens are raised, because we are Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue.

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Laurie Melo: Most people don't come to us looking for adult cats.

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Laurie Melo: So our mama cats are sometimes difficult to find homes for.

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Laurie Melo: We do mostly, like I said, just the baby orphan kittens.

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Laurie Melo: Just yesterday, I was contacted by a former foster who said that she saw three baby kittens out of her work.

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Laurie Melo: What does she do?

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Laurie Melo: She doesn't see mom.

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Laurie Melo: She's been watching for hours.

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Laurie Melo: So we jumped in, we grabbed those kittens.

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Laurie Melo: I found a foster home willing to bottle feed them, got them situated with supplies and everything that they need.

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Laurie Melo: And they're doing fairly well right now with the new foster.

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Laurie Melo: It's very intensive and you have to act super quickly because these kittens will die if they don't get fed right away.

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Michelle Fern: What you do is amazing and not easy.

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Michelle Fern: What are some of the challenges involved besides the bottle feeding and helping them go to the bathroom?

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Michelle Fern: I can just imagine the emotional...

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, no, no, there's definitely an emotional investment in there.

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Laurie Melo: The fosters do fall in love with these kittens and they put everything they have into them.

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Laurie Melo: And sometimes they don't survive, unfortunately.

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Laurie Melo: Sometimes the little tinies won't survive.

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Laurie Melo: So we're doing the very, very best that we can to keep them alive.

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Laurie Melo: But every once in a while, we will lose one.

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Laurie Melo: And that's pretty devastating for the whole rescue when we lose a little baby.

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Laurie Melo: And they do get sick.

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Laurie Melo: They can get upper respiratory infections.

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Laurie Melo: They get diarrhea a lot.

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Laurie Melo: You know, because switching from mom's milk to, you know, kitten formula sometimes causes problems with their gut.

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Laurie Melo: We have to make sure that we keep them super warm.

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Laurie Melo: If they roll off their heating pad during the night, they get cold and then they can get kind of like non-responsive in a hypoglycemic or a hypothermia reaction.

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Laurie Melo: So we have to really make sure that we're keeping an eye on these guys in a 24-7 while they grow.

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Laurie Melo: We do get some kittens that are a little bit older, like two weeks or three weeks old.

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Laurie Melo: Super easy.

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Laurie Melo: You bottle feed them, you potty them, you sleep for four hours, and then you come back and you do it again.

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Laurie Melo: You'll still have the challenge of diarrhea and potential upper respiratory infections, where they're sneezing or their eyes get infected and things like that because your immune systems are pretty compromised.

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Laurie Melo: But for the most part, they're a little bit more healthy.

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Laurie Melo: They had more of mom's milk, so they've got a little bit of that immunity to keep them going.

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Michelle Fern: Wow.

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Michelle Fern: People think, Oh, kittens.

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Michelle Fern: I found some kittens.

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Michelle Fern: Oh, it's so sweet and whatever.

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Michelle Fern: But you forget all the backstory.

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Michelle Fern: It's involved.

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Laurie Melo: Yeah.

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Laurie Melo: Well, once they hit about six weeks old, they're just super fun and you don't have to bottle feed them.

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Laurie Melo: You wean them to eating solid food.

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Laurie Melo: They can be a lot of fun for fosters.

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Laurie Melo: I have a lot of fosters that don't do bottle feeding.

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Laurie Melo: They only want the weaned kittens.

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Laurie Melo: So once they've been weaned to eating solid food, we transfer them to those fosters and then they get to have the fun part, the messy beast stage is what I call it, when they're kind of stepping in the plate and not sure what the food is all about and they're learning how to eat and go to the bathroom in the litter box and they play and they wrestle and they have such a great time with each other and with their fosters.

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Laurie Melo: So that's a good stage.

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Laurie Melo: So we're always looking for fosters to take kittens that are older as well, so that we can relieve the bottle feeding fosters and have them take in new bottle babies.

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Michelle Fern: Okay, thank you.

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Michelle Fern: You mentioned this a little bit earlier, but I want to know if there's more.

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Michelle Fern: So what about tips for our listeners if they find abandoned kittens?

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Michelle Fern: because you said watch for the mama cat.

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Laurie Melo: Yes, you want to watch from a distance so that you don't, you know, scare her away.

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Laurie Melo: If you see a mama cat nearby, the best thing to do is if the kittens are plump and they look healthy and they look, you know, well cared for, you just leave them for a little while longer with their mom cat outside.

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Laurie Melo: If they look sick or skinny or they're crying non-stop, that means something's happened and mama's gone away and you need to scoop them up and save them.

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Laurie Melo: So you really just kind of need to use judgment as to whether or not these kittens are being cared for by a mama cat or not and-

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Michelle Fern: What about hiding spaces?

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, so sometimes they do hide.

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Laurie Melo: Sometimes mom cats and feral cats, community cats will have them under decks and sheds in the bushes.

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Laurie Melo: You know, there's all kinds of places.

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Laurie Melo: Inside cars, you know, I've actually had a mom cat deliver kittens inside the back seat of a car, that someone left their window open.

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Laurie Melo: And you know, you just have to be really, really careful when you see them.

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Laurie Melo: And don't just automatically assume that they're orphaned and scoop them up.

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Laurie Melo: We call that kidnapping.

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Laurie Melo: And we really don't want to do that.

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Laurie Melo: Bottle feeding kittens is really difficult.

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Laurie Melo: And if there's a mom cat available to help them, it's always better for the kittens to stay with their mom.

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Laurie Melo: But if the kittens are older, like four to six weeks old, and they're running around and they're starting to eat solid food, that's a good time for you to scoop those kittens up, bring them inside and socialize them to humans so that you can place them up for adoption.

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Laurie Melo: If you leave them out too long until they're like eight or nine weeks old, it becomes really hard to socialize them to humans, and they'll always be a little bit shy and maybe even a little bit feral and much more difficult to adopt out.

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Michelle Fern: You know, the kittens that were born on my doorstep, two I adopted out, one I kept, because she came with a sister, an older sister from another litter.

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Michelle Fern: And, you know, that's Molly, and I wish I had held her more.

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Michelle Fern: I thought I held her a lot, but she doesn't like to be held.

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Michelle Fern: So I blame myself and not socializing her to be held.

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, it's not always your fault, though.

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Laurie Melo: Sometimes they're just they're just pre-wired.

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Laurie Melo: We've got kittens that have been raised, bottle fed and raised in a litter.

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Laurie Melo: And one of them will just be, you know, not interested in being held or are not interested in being a lap cat, where everyone else is crawling all over you and you can't get them off.

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Laurie Melo: You know, one might just decide, you know, they just, that's just not their thing.

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Laurie Melo: So you can't really blame yourself.

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Laurie Melo: But the more socialization that you can give the kittens, the better it is.

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Laurie Melo: So that's one of the reasons why we opened the Itty Bitty Kitty Cafe, is to help get our kitties more socialized so that they become better cats once they're adopted.

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Michelle Fern: Okay.

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Michelle Fern: And right now there's just one location.

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Michelle Fern: You're in San Jose?

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Laurie Melo: Right.

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Laurie Melo: We're in San Jose on Union Avenue.

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Laurie Melo: It's something that we just started in May.

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Laurie Melo: And up until then, we've been with Pet Food Express doing adoption fairs in cages in the pet store since 2007, when the Pet Food Express stores started opening.

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Laurie Melo: And we've done a lot of adoptions from the store.

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Laurie Melo: But we've decided to open up the Itty Bitty Kitty Cafe, so there's rooms where the kittens can run free, and the people can come in and sit down and play with them.

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Laurie Melo: So we've got people coming in every hour, different people coming in different all day for six hours on Saturdays and Sundays, playing with our kittens and holding them and cuddling them.

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Laurie Melo: So they're getting used to kids and old people and just pretty much all kinds of different people.

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Laurie Melo: So when they do get adopted, they're very well socialized and comfortable around all kinds of people.

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Michelle Fern: Okay, and you're a nonprofit organization.

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Laurie Melo: Correct.

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Michelle Fern: What about, you know, because you're one location, I used to live in California and I miss it at times, most of the time, but we have listeners globally.

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Michelle Fern: What if there's not an Itty Bitty Orphan Kitty Rescue in their area?

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Michelle Fern: You know, what would you recommend to people that are thinking, you know, this sounds like something interesting or I, there's a lot of people with shelters that listen in Cattitude, or I run a shelter, maybe I should consider this.

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Michelle Fern: What would you suggest?

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Laurie Melo: Yeah, so some shelters are a little bit progressive, and they've created what they call community rooms within their shelter environment.

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Laurie Melo: The Humane Society Silicon Valley and Milpitas is one of them.

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Laurie Melo: It's a private shelter.

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Laurie Melo: It's not a government shelter.

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Laurie Melo: I mean, they have big rooms where the kittens hang out, and people can come in and meet the kittens and socialize with them.

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Laurie Melo: They have volunteers that come in and just socialize those kittens.

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Laurie Melo: So some shelters are progressive and are starting to do very similar things to what we're doing.

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Laurie Melo: And there are rescue groups even in the South Bay area here where we are, that are also doing the same thing.

00:13:48.078 --> 00:13:57.258
Laurie Melo: I have rescue partners that have like, you know, kitten play rooms where people can go in and, you know, look for a kitten to adopt and spend a little time playing with the kittens.

00:13:57.258 --> 00:14:07.178
Laurie Melo: My cafe is a little bit different than most of these places in that, in order for us to pay the bills and pay the lease, we actually charge people to come in to play with kittens.

00:14:07.178 --> 00:14:09.158
Laurie Melo: We call it kitten therapy sessions.

00:14:09.158 --> 00:14:18.298
Laurie Melo: And we let the people pay $15 to come in and spend an hour in a nice comfy room that's like little kitten Disneyland and play with our little baby kittens.

00:14:18.618 --> 00:14:21.898
Laurie Melo: There's not very many places that do just kittens.

00:14:21.898 --> 00:14:25.298
Laurie Melo: Most of the cat cafes and stuff have adult cats.

00:14:25.298 --> 00:14:28.598
Laurie Melo: So that's where we're a little bit different in that we only have kittens.

00:14:28.598 --> 00:14:39.118
Laurie Melo: But yeah, I think that people are starting to realize that this is a good way of getting kittens adopted and getting them socialized is by creating these types of organizations.

00:14:39.118 --> 00:14:49.898
Michelle Fern: Okay, while we're on the kitty cafe, I don't know if you're going to get a lot of people heading to San Jose or people that have their own shelters saying, you know what, we should think about doing this.

00:14:49.898 --> 00:14:55.478
Michelle Fern: But taking care of the orphan kitties is a huge responsibility and a lot.

00:14:55.478 --> 00:14:56.938
Michelle Fern: It's very intense.

00:14:56.938 --> 00:14:59.678
Michelle Fern: So what about your kitty cafe?

00:14:59.678 --> 00:15:01.278
Michelle Fern: Is anyone allowed?

00:15:01.278 --> 00:15:06.938
Michelle Fern: How do you protect the kittens from, because I'm sure people are thinking about this, and from germs and things like that?

00:15:06.938 --> 00:15:07.418
Laurie Melo: Right.

00:15:07.418 --> 00:15:13.938
Laurie Melo: So all of our kittens live in foster homes and they all live in separate foster homes and we usually only have one litter per foster home.

00:15:14.058 --> 00:15:19.698
Laurie Melo: So that way they're separated and they don't spread germs with each other during the week.

00:15:19.698 --> 00:15:23.118
Laurie Melo: On the weekends, everybody hand sanitizes when they come in.

00:15:23.118 --> 00:15:29.258
Laurie Melo: We are very particular about which groups of kittens we'll put together in a room to be with each other.

00:15:29.258 --> 00:15:35.658
Laurie Melo: And we make sure that they have been healthy for at least a week with no diarrhea or upper respiratory infections or anything like that.

00:15:35.658 --> 00:15:37.838
Laurie Melo: So only healthy kittens get to come.

00:15:37.838 --> 00:15:45.558
Laurie Melo: And all of our guests that come in to play with the kittens have to hand sanitize and they have to remove their shoes and come in wearing socks only.

00:15:45.558 --> 00:15:53.018
Laurie Melo: We do disinfect at the end of the day, every day with rescue disinfectant to make sure that we don't have any residual germs left.

00:15:53.018 --> 00:15:57.958
Laurie Melo: And the kittens are only there on Saturdays and Sundays for six hours and we actually rotate that.

00:15:57.958 --> 00:16:00.918
Laurie Melo: We have 84 kittens in foster care right now.

00:16:00.918 --> 00:16:05.638
Laurie Melo: So on a Saturday, we'll have like 20 kittens in one room and 20 kittens in another room.

00:16:05.638 --> 00:16:09.738
Laurie Melo: But then on Sunday, we'll have totally different kittens in each room.

00:16:10.158 --> 00:16:13.538
Laurie Melo: So everybody gets a chance to come for one day a weekend.

00:16:13.538 --> 00:16:13.958
Michelle Fern: Okay.

00:16:13.958 --> 00:16:16.338
Michelle Fern: And do you have restrictions on age?

00:16:16.338 --> 00:16:16.738
Laurie Melo: Oh, yeah.

00:16:16.998 --> 00:16:21.438
Laurie Melo: So we do because baby kittens and some of these are really tiny kittens.

00:16:21.438 --> 00:16:26.078
Laurie Melo: We do have some concerns about really young children being in the rooms with them.

00:16:26.078 --> 00:16:28.018
Laurie Melo: So we do say five and older.

00:16:28.018 --> 00:16:32.858
Laurie Melo: So we don't want kids under five years old running around with the kittens.

00:16:32.858 --> 00:16:39.518
Laurie Melo: We do make exceptions if they put them in a stroller and bring the kids in a stroller, they can put kittens in the kids laps.

00:16:39.738 --> 00:16:42.138
Laurie Melo: But they can't be on the floor running around with the kittens.

00:16:42.138 --> 00:16:44.558
Laurie Melo: That would be just too dangerous for the kittens.

00:16:44.558 --> 00:16:46.138
Laurie Melo: It wouldn't be good for their safety.

00:16:46.138 --> 00:16:46.418
Michelle Fern: Right.

00:16:46.418 --> 00:16:48.038
Michelle Fern: I can certainly understand that.

00:16:48.038 --> 00:16:48.238
Michelle Fern: All right.

00:16:48.238 --> 00:16:51.118
Michelle Fern: We're going to take a short break and we'll be right back.

00:16:54.838 --> 00:16:58.918
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00:18:04.158 --> 00:18:05.258
Announcer: Let's Talk Pets.

00:18:06.158 --> 00:18:07.178
Announcer: On Pet Life Radio.

00:18:07.178 --> 00:18:08.518
Announcer: Pet Life Radio.

00:18:08.518 --> 00:18:10.718
Announcer: petliferadio.com.

00:18:21.299 --> 00:18:22.459
Michelle Fern: Welcome back, everyone.

00:18:22.459 --> 00:18:24.519
Michelle Fern: We're talking to laurie Melo.

00:18:24.519 --> 00:18:27.299
Michelle Fern: She is the president, founder.

00:18:27.299 --> 00:18:31.739
Michelle Fern: She does it all at the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitten Rescue.

00:18:31.739 --> 00:18:37.159
Michelle Fern: So laurie, do you have any advice for people that are interested in adopting kittens?

00:18:37.159 --> 00:18:40.279
Michelle Fern: What kind of screening they should expect?

00:18:40.279 --> 00:18:49.419
Michelle Fern: because I know that a lot of, whether it's non-profit, shelters, wherever they're adopting, there's a lot of screening that goes on and should.

00:18:49.819 --> 00:18:58.099
Laurie Melo: Yes, so most shelters don't have the ability, and I actually worked at the San Jose Shelter for a couple of years, a while ago.

00:18:58.099 --> 00:19:02.079
Laurie Melo: One of the reasons why I left was because they don't have a good screening process.

00:19:02.079 --> 00:19:03.959
Laurie Melo: They basically say, do you have a place to live?

00:19:03.959 --> 00:19:05.119
Laurie Melo: Are you over 18?

00:19:05.119 --> 00:19:06.499
Laurie Melo: Show me your driver's license.

00:19:06.499 --> 00:19:07.839
Laurie Melo: Here's some kittens.

00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:15.079
Laurie Melo: They walk out the door without any information given to the adopter to help them acclimate the kitten when the kitten gets home.

00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:16.819
Laurie Melo: So rescues are different.

00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:20.479
Laurie Melo: I mean, extremely different from a shelter adoption.

00:19:20.479 --> 00:19:27.599
Laurie Melo: Our rescue especially has been for the past 20 years, only adopting our kittens in pairs and we do extensive screening.

00:19:27.599 --> 00:19:40.279
Laurie Melo: So we'll do like an interview with you on site when you're meeting the kittens, and we have you do an adoption application, and we go over that with you and make sure that there aren't any concerns.

00:19:40.279 --> 00:19:43.579
Laurie Melo: Then once you're approved, you get to pick whichever pair of kittens that you like.

00:19:43.839 --> 00:20:01.919
Laurie Melo: Then what we do is we give you an adoption packet of information, lots of information on how to set up your kitties and make them have a safe room, to make sure that they had the food and the litter that they're currently using so that it's familiar for them, because these little kittens really need a lot of guidance.

00:20:01.919 --> 00:20:13.939
Laurie Melo: Sometimes we do home deliveries, and then we stay available to them to offer them supporting guidance for sometimes, you know, weeks or months after the adoption, just to make sure that everything is going okay.

00:20:13.939 --> 00:20:20.979
Laurie Melo: So that's a little bit different than what you'll get from adopting from a shelter or even some rescues who do what I call cash and carry.

00:20:20.979 --> 00:20:27.159
Laurie Melo: You basically come in, you fill out an application, and then you pay the money and you walk out of the store with the kittens.

00:20:27.159 --> 00:20:27.819
Laurie Melo: We don't do that.

00:20:27.819 --> 00:20:33.519
Laurie Melo: We make you wait the next day before you can get your kittens, because we want you to prepare and get your home ready.

00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:34.679
Michelle Fern: I like what you do.

00:20:35.159 --> 00:20:38.439
Michelle Fern: I've heard all kinds of crazy stories out there.

00:20:39.079 --> 00:20:41.739
Michelle Fern: I've been doing Cattitude since 2017.

00:20:41.739 --> 00:20:52.999
Michelle Fern: And just in listening, you want to do a lot of screening, because you want to make sure the kittens are taken care of and that they're not abandoned or returned.

00:20:52.999 --> 00:20:53.679
Laurie Melo: Right, right.

00:20:53.679 --> 00:20:54.739
Laurie Melo: And we're really fortunate.

00:20:54.739 --> 00:21:01.559
Laurie Melo: We don't get a lot of returns, and we do get people that are pretty darn happy with their kittens once they get them home and get them situated.

00:21:01.559 --> 00:21:11.219
Laurie Melo: If they're introducing them to other pets in the home, we give them information on how to do that and instructions and guidance to make sure that they're, you know, that they get along with each other.

00:21:11.219 --> 00:21:13.339
Laurie Melo: I mean, it's harmonious in the home.

00:21:13.339 --> 00:21:27.439
Laurie Melo: If they've got an old cat, let's say a 16-year-old cat, and they want to adopt, you know, a single kitten, you know, we'll talk them out of that and say, you know, you need to adopt two kittens because that takes the pressure off the elderly cat because they have each other to play with.

00:21:27.439 --> 00:21:28.939
Laurie Melo: So we do a lot of counseling.

00:21:29.619 --> 00:21:35.719
Laurie Melo: Our volunteers are very well trained on doing adoption counseling with our adopters.

00:21:35.719 --> 00:21:41.819
Laurie Melo: And we just really want to make sure that everything goes well, and the kittens are happy, and the people are happy, and our fosters are happy.

00:21:41.819 --> 00:21:47.439
Laurie Melo: We want our fosters to feel like, you know, they put a lot of their time and energy and love into these kittens.

00:21:47.439 --> 00:21:50.319
Laurie Melo: They want to know those kittens are going to a really good home.

00:21:50.319 --> 00:21:52.539
Michelle Fern: You said you adopt your kittens.

00:21:52.539 --> 00:21:54.439
Michelle Fern: Do you only adopt kittens in pairs?

00:21:54.439 --> 00:22:06.059
Laurie Melo: Yes, so our very own kittens, we only adopt them in pairs unless we have an odd number of a kitten and the adopter already has a kitten that maybe they've adopted a single kitten from another rescuer's shelter.

00:22:06.059 --> 00:22:08.219
Laurie Melo: So then we'll do an addition.

00:22:08.219 --> 00:22:13.619
Laurie Melo: We'll add an extra odd number of kittens that we might have with their resident kitten.

00:22:13.619 --> 00:22:21.939
Laurie Melo: But we want it to be a kitten, not a cat, because kittens really, especially bottle fed kittens, really need another kitten in order to develop properly.

00:22:21.939 --> 00:22:27.619
Laurie Melo: They need to learn what's appropriate biting, scratching, wrestling and playing and things like that.

00:22:27.619 --> 00:22:31.519
Laurie Melo: They just really need that for good development to become good kitties.

00:22:31.519 --> 00:22:33.439
Laurie Melo: They don't learn that if they're a single kitty.

00:22:33.439 --> 00:22:38.979
Laurie Melo: So if we adopted a single kitty, what will happen is they tend to put a lot of demands on your attention.

00:22:38.979 --> 00:22:45.779
Laurie Melo: They will become, you know, most likely they'll become biters because they'll be biting you in your hands, because they don't have another kitten to bite with.

00:22:45.779 --> 00:22:48.679
Laurie Melo: There's just so many things that can go wrong with a single kitten.

00:22:48.679 --> 00:22:53.139
Laurie Melo: And we just feel like doing them in pairs just makes everybody happier.

00:22:53.479 --> 00:23:00.479
Michelle Fern: My personal opinion, I think that's true, even if you get a kitten from a rescue or shelter, not bottle fed, but even a little older.

00:23:00.479 --> 00:23:08.119
Michelle Fern: I think they keep each other happy and play with each other, where it's not the same as with, you know, a human and a kitten.

00:23:08.119 --> 00:23:10.019
Michelle Fern: They just need each other.

00:23:10.019 --> 00:23:10.659
Laurie Melo: I agree.

00:23:10.659 --> 00:23:20.959
Laurie Melo: And I think that there's a misconception out there that people think that cats are independent, that they're good, you know, to be loners, that, you know, and they're happy, you know, by themselves.

00:23:21.379 --> 00:23:27.839
Laurie Melo: But, you know, out in the world, you know, if they're cats that are out, community cats, they gather in groups and colonies.

00:23:27.839 --> 00:23:29.099
Laurie Melo: They want to be together.

00:23:29.099 --> 00:23:30.199
Laurie Melo: They support each other.

00:23:30.199 --> 00:23:31.579
Laurie Melo: They help each other.

00:23:31.579 --> 00:23:33.999
Laurie Melo: And they bond with each other outside.

00:23:33.999 --> 00:23:39.299
Laurie Melo: So now that we're mostly doing indoor only kitties, I mean, all of our kitties, we want to be indoor only.

00:23:39.299 --> 00:23:44.699
Laurie Melo: An indoor only kitty will never see another of its species again if it lives inside by itself.

00:23:44.699 --> 00:23:49.539
Laurie Melo: It just, it's going to be a much happier cat to have another one of its species living in the home with them.

00:23:49.939 --> 00:23:58.439
Laurie Melo: And you can have a dog that bonds with the kitten, you can have kids that bond with the kitten, but it's just not going to be the same as having another kitten to bond with.

00:23:58.439 --> 00:23:58.879
Michelle Fern: Okay.

00:23:58.879 --> 00:24:00.359
Michelle Fern: Thanks for sharing that.

00:24:00.359 --> 00:24:09.579
Michelle Fern: You have a great website and we're going to mention it a little bit later, but you also have a section called Happy Tales, which some great stories there.

00:24:09.579 --> 00:24:11.319
Michelle Fern: Can you share one of them with us?

00:24:11.319 --> 00:24:11.599
Laurie Melo: Yeah.

00:24:11.599 --> 00:24:15.079
Laurie Melo: So the Happy Tales on our website, unfortunately, is pretty outdated.

00:24:15.079 --> 00:24:20.199
Laurie Melo: We created that website in 2006 and I have not been able to keep it completely up to date.

00:24:20.199 --> 00:24:22.699
Michelle Fern: Any happy story is fine.

00:24:22.699 --> 00:24:23.939
Laurie Melo: Okay.

00:24:23.939 --> 00:24:24.979
Laurie Melo: Let me try to think of one.

00:24:24.979 --> 00:24:25.239
Laurie Melo: Okay.

00:24:25.239 --> 00:24:39.679
Laurie Melo: So we had a situation where just recently, a woman lost her husband and she was really, really grieving and then she had adopted two kitties from us about 15 or 16 years previous and they had both passed away.

00:24:39.679 --> 00:24:46.559
Laurie Melo: So she came to us in tears basically saying she was all alone and she needed some kittens.

00:24:46.919 --> 00:24:59.959
Laurie Melo: So we helped her go through all the different kittens that we had and find the right match for her that had the right personality that was going to give her the right emotional support that she needed.

00:24:59.959 --> 00:25:09.179
Laurie Melo: And we ended up finding two Siamese kittens that were born in Las Bainos, which is a very rural, isolated area south of us.

00:25:09.179 --> 00:25:12.359
Laurie Melo: They were being raised by their mom in a foster home down there.

00:25:12.359 --> 00:25:14.719
Laurie Melo: And we were able to get these two kittens to her.

00:25:15.339 --> 00:25:16.939
Laurie Melo: I get messages from her still.

00:25:16.939 --> 00:25:20.739
Laurie Melo: I mean, this has probably been close to a year now.

00:25:20.739 --> 00:25:26.419
Laurie Melo: I get messages from her at least once a week with sending me pictures of the kitties and posing.

00:25:26.419 --> 00:25:28.179
Laurie Melo: And she is a cello player.

00:25:28.179 --> 00:25:31.239
Laurie Melo: So she plays the cello for her kitties.

00:25:31.239 --> 00:25:34.459
Laurie Melo: And she is just, it's just a beautiful, beautiful story.

00:25:34.599 --> 00:25:40.779
Laurie Melo: And she has just really gotten so much love from these kittens that it's helped her through her grief.

00:25:40.779 --> 00:25:42.539
Michelle Fern: Those stories are always so wonderful.

00:25:42.539 --> 00:25:44.059
Michelle Fern: They're just so wonderful.

00:25:44.579 --> 00:25:49.079
Laurie Melo: You know, and you know, we have other stories too, of kitties that we've pulled that were medically challenged.

00:25:49.079 --> 00:25:53.959
Laurie Melo: We had one that came to us that one of its legs, the bones did not connect.

00:25:53.959 --> 00:25:59.279
Laurie Melo: And so the paw was floppy and everybody kept saying it needed, that leg needed to be amputated.

00:25:59.279 --> 00:26:04.059
Laurie Melo: We ended up taking it to our vet and our vet said, you know, I think that it can stay.

00:26:04.139 --> 00:26:11.899
Laurie Melo: I think that she can, you know, she still uses the leg even though the paw was completely disconnected and could not be repaired surgically.

00:26:12.279 --> 00:26:25.199
Laurie Melo: And we didn't think we would ever find an adopter for her, but we had a couple come in and they just fell in love with her and they said they think that that was just adorable and that they had no problems whatsoever adopting a kitty with the defect and they love her.

00:26:25.199 --> 00:26:33.279
Laurie Melo: And they just moved to Florida actually and sent us pictures of them, you know, cuddling and being happy the two kittens that they adopted from us.

00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:36.859
Laurie Melo: And she's doing very well and she didn't have to have her leg amputated.

00:26:36.859 --> 00:26:47.559
Laurie Melo: So, you know, there's just lots of stories like that where we have saved kitties that maybe wouldn't have survived had we not pulled them from the shelter and found them really good homes where they're happy.

00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:49.299
Michelle Fern: You know, you're a non-profit.

00:26:49.299 --> 00:26:55.239
Michelle Fern: And I know you said your website's outdated, but you do have some ways people can help.

00:26:55.239 --> 00:26:55.919
Laurie Melo: Yes.

00:26:55.919 --> 00:26:57.659
Michelle Fern: So how can our listeners help?

00:26:57.659 --> 00:27:06.779
Michelle Fern: because we might have a listener, I don't know, that has something or just got a nice bonus or who knows what, and just says, you know, I'd love to send some money to this rescue.

00:27:07.319 --> 00:27:07.619
Laurie Melo: Right.

00:27:07.619 --> 00:27:11.039
Laurie Melo: So we're a 501c3 nonprofit.

00:27:11.039 --> 00:27:13.879
Laurie Melo: All of our money comes in as all donations.

00:27:13.879 --> 00:27:16.199
Laurie Melo: We don't have any funding.

00:27:16.199 --> 00:27:18.019
Laurie Melo: So, you know, it's kind of hard to keep going.

00:27:18.019 --> 00:27:19.999
Laurie Melo: Our kittens cost a lot to feed.

00:27:19.999 --> 00:27:21.519
Laurie Melo: I feed all of our foster kittens.

00:27:21.519 --> 00:27:24.399
Laurie Melo: We provide food for all of our fosters so they don't have to.

00:27:24.399 --> 00:27:29.199
Laurie Melo: So we're constantly looking for ways to fundraise and get money in so we can feed our kittens.

00:27:29.199 --> 00:27:36.979
Laurie Melo: Some people donate by going to our Amazon wishlist and buying items there, food items there and having them mailed to us.

00:27:36.979 --> 00:27:39.219
Laurie Melo: Some of them go to our website.

00:27:39.219 --> 00:27:41.239
Laurie Melo: There's a PayPal button there to donate.

00:27:41.239 --> 00:27:51.979
Laurie Melo: You can donate through PayPal to make a donation and you can, you know, designate what you want it to be for, food or medical care or just, you know, for whatever use that we need it for.

00:27:51.999 --> 00:27:57.199
Laurie Melo: And, you know, we do Facebook fundraisers sometimes to do the Itty Bitty Kitty Cafe.

00:27:57.199 --> 00:28:01.859
Laurie Melo: We had to move really quickly because once I got board approval, it was like we had to jump on it.

00:28:02.159 --> 00:28:05.039
Laurie Melo: So we did a GoFundMe and people were able to donate through that.

00:28:05.039 --> 00:28:07.479
Laurie Melo: That GoFundMe, I believe, is still active.

00:28:07.479 --> 00:28:19.539
Laurie Melo: So there's a lot of ways that people that are in the South Bay area, you know, of San Francisco, where we're located, can still help us by making donations with food or with funds.

00:28:19.539 --> 00:28:20.759
Michelle Fern: And your website?

00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:22.239
Laurie Melo: Yeah, so they can go through our website.

00:28:22.239 --> 00:28:32.779
Laurie Melo: If it says donate at the top of the website, you just click there and then you can make a donation through PayPal with a credit card or however, if you have a PayPal account, however you want to do it.

00:28:32.779 --> 00:28:35.799
Laurie Melo: And then that money goes directly into our business account.

00:28:35.799 --> 00:28:39.839
Michelle Fern: OK, and I love the name of your website, because it's ibokrescue.org.

00:28:39.839 --> 00:28:42.159
Michelle Fern: So itty bitty orphan kitty.

00:28:42.159 --> 00:28:46.679
Laurie Melo: Yeah, when I first thought of it, it was IBOK, like a little baby kitten saying, IBOK.

00:28:46.679 --> 00:28:47.719
Michelle Fern: Oh, yeah.

00:28:47.719 --> 00:28:51.719
Laurie Melo: And so that sort of was IBOK, but everybody still calls it IBOK.

00:28:51.719 --> 00:28:56.019
Laurie Melo: And then with the iPhone and the iBook and the iPad and everything else, it just became IBOK.

00:28:56.279 --> 00:28:58.839
Laurie Melo: But I still think of it as IBOK.

00:28:58.839 --> 00:29:01.539
Michelle Fern: We're trained through technology, you know?

00:29:01.539 --> 00:29:02.319
Michelle Fern: Yeah.

00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:04.779
Laurie Melo: We do have a lot of kittens available for adoption.

00:29:04.779 --> 00:29:13.459
Laurie Melo: All the kittens that are on our website are available for adoption, and the kittens that come to our kitty cafe on the weekends are all available for adoption.

00:29:13.459 --> 00:29:17.239
Laurie Melo: We don't adopt outside of the Bay Area, so we don't ship kittens.

00:29:17.239 --> 00:29:23.859
Laurie Melo: We did get an email recently from someone from Hawaii asking us to ship some Siamese kittens to her in Hawaii.

00:29:24.119 --> 00:29:26.119
Laurie Melo: And we're like, yeah, we're not doing that.

00:29:26.119 --> 00:29:29.639
Laurie Melo: So you kind of have to be local in order to adopt from us.

00:29:29.639 --> 00:29:33.399
Laurie Melo: But sometimes we also like have kitties that are not getting adopted.

00:29:33.399 --> 00:29:41.399
Laurie Melo: Like we have some that came in as like two or three week old kittens that are now six months old, and they're still waiting and waiting waiting for their home.

00:29:41.399 --> 00:29:48.479
Laurie Melo: So we are asking people to help sponsor them because of course we have to continue to feed them and provide them with medical care while they wait.

00:29:49.099 --> 00:30:05.459
Laurie Melo: So you can actually go on our website and sponsor a kitten or sponsor a pair of kittens by making a recurring donation like once a month, like $10 a month or something like that to help go towards helping feed and care for those kittens that are waiting for their home.

00:30:05.459 --> 00:30:12.039
Michelle Fern: Well, I want to thank you so much for coming on Cattitude, and thanks for all you do to keep all these orphan kittens safe.

00:30:12.039 --> 00:30:13.379
Laurie Melo: Thank you so much for inviting me.

00:30:13.379 --> 00:30:14.739
Laurie Melo: I really appreciate it.

00:30:14.739 --> 00:30:24.679
Michelle Fern: I want to thank laurie for coming on Cattitude and sharing all this really interesting information about the Itty Bitty Orphan Kitten Rescue.

00:30:24.679 --> 00:30:26.259
Michelle Fern: I wish I lived around the corner.

00:30:26.259 --> 00:30:27.699
Michelle Fern: I'd be there every weekend.

00:30:27.699 --> 00:30:29.479
Michelle Fern: So thank you so much, laurie.

00:30:29.479 --> 00:30:35.599
Michelle Fern: I'd like to also thank my kitties, Molly, Dennis and Charlotte.

00:30:35.599 --> 00:30:37.499
Michelle Fern: Molly was the one we found as a baby.

00:30:37.499 --> 00:30:43.659
Michelle Fern: And wow, I mean, she had a mama, but it was still intense and raising her and her brother and sister.

00:30:43.659 --> 00:30:46.579
Michelle Fern: Her brother and sister we adopted out to good homes.

00:30:47.079 --> 00:30:48.299
Michelle Fern: But we've had Molly now.

00:30:48.299 --> 00:30:49.479
Michelle Fern: Gosh, we're going on.

00:30:49.479 --> 00:30:51.279
Michelle Fern: I think Molly just turned eight.

00:30:51.279 --> 00:30:55.139
Michelle Fern: So at the other day, so happy belated birthday to Molly.

00:30:55.139 --> 00:31:00.119
Michelle Fern: And I also want to give a shout out to a long time listener, Julie.

00:31:00.119 --> 00:31:02.019
Michelle Fern: It's her birthday today.

00:31:02.019 --> 00:31:03.759
Michelle Fern: So happy birthday, Julie.

00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:07.159
Michelle Fern: And I want to thank everyone who listens to Cattitude.

00:31:07.159 --> 00:31:08.759
Michelle Fern: I appreciate it so much.

00:31:08.759 --> 00:31:18.399
Michelle Fern: Thank you so much for listening to Cattitude all these years and making our show one of the most popular, if not popular, pet show on the internet.

00:31:18.399 --> 00:31:19.879
Michelle Fern: So thank you.

00:31:19.879 --> 00:31:26.039
Michelle Fern: And this show would not be the same without my magical producer, Mark Winter.

00:31:26.639 --> 00:31:28.519
Michelle Fern: He is a genius.

00:31:28.519 --> 00:31:33.319
Michelle Fern: So thank you so much, Mark, for all you do, editing and producing our podcasts.

00:31:33.319 --> 00:31:36.159
Michelle Fern: You make them sound so amazing.

00:31:36.159 --> 00:31:40.039
Michelle Fern: And hey, keep in mind, lose the attitude, have cattitude.

00:31:40.919 --> 00:31:46.879
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