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Tiny But Mighty: Kitten Lady's Guide to Saving the Most Vulnerable Felines - Hardcover

Shaw, Hannah

 
9781524744069: Tiny But Mighty: Kitten Lady's Guide to Saving the Most Vulnerable Felines
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1524744069 ISBN 13: 9781524744069
Verlag: Plume, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

*A New York Times Bestseller*
#1 National Bestseller
Indie Bestseller


From Kitten Lady, the professional kitten rescuer, humane educator, animal advocate, and owner of the popular Instagram @kittenxlady comes the definitive book on saving the most vulnerable—and adorable—feline population: newborn kittens.

Hannah Shaw, better known as Kitten Lady, has dedicated her life to saving the tiniest felines, but one doesn't have to be a professional kitten rescuer to change—and save—lives. In Tiny but Mighty, Hannah not only outlines the dangers newborn kittens face and how she combats them, but how you can help every step of the way, from fighting feline overpopulation on the streets to fostering unweaned kittens, from combating illness to combating compassion fatigue, from finding a vet to finding the purrfect forever home. Filled with information on animal welfare, instructional guides, and personal rescue stories of kittens like Chloe, Tidbit, Hank, and Badger—not to mention hundreds of adorable kitten photos—Tiny but Mighty is the must-have kitten book for cat lovers, current-and-future rescuers, foster parents, activists, and advocates.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

New York Times bestselling author Hannah Shaw is an award-winning kitten rescuer, humane educator, and unwavering animal advocate who has dedicated her life to protecting the tiniest and most vulnerable felines. Her project, Kitten Lady, provides educational media, training resources, and instructional workshops that help individuals and animal shelters learn how to save the lives of kittens--in a fun and engaging format. Hannah is the author of the children's book Kitten Lady's Big Book of Little Kittens, the 2019 ASPCA Cat Advocate of the Year, and she has been featured as a guest expert on Animal Planet's My Cat from Hell. She is also the founder of Orphan Kitten Club, a 501(c)3 charitable organization that provides rescue and adoption services to orphaned kittens in the San Diego area. Visit her at KittenLady.org, YouTube.com/KittenLady, Facebook.com/kittenxlady, and on Instagram at @kittenxlady.

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Chapter One

State of the Kitten

Everyone Loves Kittens

I spend a lot of time in transit.

Working in so many different communities, I’ve become accustomed to the monotony of travel: the long hours, the rigorous TSA inspection of my supplies (seriously, who travels with this much cat food?), and the small talk that occurs between strangers in airports and hotel lobbies. The question people always want to ask is, of course, “What do you do?”

When I tell people I’m an animal advocate who specializes in kittens, the response is almost always the same. First, a facial expression falling somewhere on the spectrum between utter confusion and absolute delight. Second, a comment about how I have the most adorable job ever. Third, some variation of the following inquiry:

“Do kittens really need advocates? I thought everyone loved kittens already.”

I do my best to summarize with a smile, but the truth is that to fully explain the magnitude of suffering that kittens face and the importance of our efforts to save them would take an entire book. And so here we are.

In many ways, working with kittens is absolutely adorable. I’m surrounded by fluffy little bobbleheaded dinguses every day of my life. I get to watch innocent beings grow and flourish. From the serene satisfaction of a baby’s first gentle purr to the bellyaching hilarity of a room full of pouncing micro-predators, working with kittens is truly an enjoyable calling. But it isn’t their charming nature that inspires me to do what I do. To me, kitten advocacy has very little to do with cuteness, and everything to do with a great need for tangible change in the way we view, understand, and treat the tiniest and most vulnerable felines.

The truth is that kittens are universally loved in our culture, yet we kill them in epidemic numbers. Unweaned kittens make up a large proportion of feline euthanasias nationally; for many shelters, their deaths account for the majority of euthanasias. The general public is completely unaware that kittens under eight weeks old are one of the most at-risk populations in the US shelter system. Without public knowledge of these issues, we cannot empower people to get active and save kittens’ lives. We must start with a basic understanding of not just what is happening, but also why it is happening, and how each of us can take tiny steps to help solve this problem. We must unravel and examine this complex issue, rally the troops, and forge ahead toward a day when no kitten must die due to lack of resources or of community awareness.

THE UNADOPTABLES

For decades, millions of cats were being euthanized each year. I’ll never forget when the 2016 national data was published and, for the first time in my rescue career, the number of cats dying in US shelters annually was fewer than one million. I wept with happiness to learn that we presently have national euthanasia rates of roughly 860,000 cats per year. Maybe it seems odd to celebrate that hundreds of thousands of cats are still dying in shelters, but seeing the number drop so dramatically over the course of my career has certainly given me reason to feel optimistic about a brighter future for cats, and to push ahead.

It’s an exciting time to be an advocate, as things are truly getting better for cats all the time. Having rightfully won the adoration of the general public, cats are now being adopted in higher numbers than ever before. Roughly 37 percent of US households are now home to a cat, and while I obviously think that number should be higher (seriously, have you met cats? they’re pretty great), this is a huge achievement. More people than ever are discovering the joy of sharing life with a feline, resulting in a steady rise of cat companionship. As adoption rates rise, there is, in turn, a marked decrease in euthanasia.

It’s easy to see why increased adoption would mean decreased euthanasia. Adoption is a solution to euthanasia, and the two variables are thus inversely correlated; as adoption goes up, euthanasia goes down. But this is not a one-to-one correlation, as adoption is only one of several variables necessary to get euthanasia to zero—it is not a full solution. Adoption, of course, only helps cats who are adoptable. If you examine the data, you’ll quickly find that the cats who are dying in shelters tend not to be cats for whom adoption would have been a solution. The populations that are most at risk in modern-day animal shelters are the unadoptables.

Unadoptable animals are those who are not candidates for an adoption program. For felines, this comprises two main populations: cats who are feral and cats who are under eight weeks old. Many people don’t realize that while a two-month-old kitten is the likeliest to find a home in a shelter, a two-week-old kitten is the likeliest to be killed. You simply can’t go to an animal shelter and adopt a neonatal kitten or a fractious cat who doesn’t tolerate touch. But that doesn’t mean those animals aren’t there, or that they don’t deserve our help. Feral cats and unweaned kittens are the two biggest populations comprising the 860,000 feline deaths in shelters each year, which is why these are the two populations I’ve dedicated my life to understanding and saving.

Just because an animal isn’t a candidate for adoption doesn’t mean her life is without value; it simply means she needs a different solution than an adoption program. For feral cats, this means providing them with a solution that allows them to live their full lives outdoors, where they are most at home, without bringing more kittens into the world (read more about feral cats in Chapter Two). For kittens, it means providing a solution that keeps them alive until they are old enough to be adopted into a home. There are a number of programs that aim to protect unadoptable populations, including trap-neuter-return, on-site nurseries, and foster care. The result of these strategies is that we are able to reduce the number of kittens being born, while shepherding those kittens who are born through the vulnerable period of unadoptability. We are able to create hope where there otherwise would be none.

STAY STUBBORN, HAVE HOPE

What is hope? To me, hope is more than a cheesy motivational poster or a platitude embossed on a charm bracelet. It is the defiant resistance against suffering, and the relentless insistence that a positive outcome is possible. It is the shifting tide that occurs when we refuse to accept needless death as an inevitability. From this stubborn love, miraculous things can occur! When it comes to the euthanasia epidemic, I’ve always been stubborn . . . and I’ve always had hope.

Euthanasia is, by definition, “the act or practice of killing or permitting the death of hopelessly sick or injured individuals.” But is a kitten hopeless just because she is three weeks old? Heck no! Having raised hundreds of thriving babies, I hardly consider them beyond hope. The fact is that they are only hopeless if we fail to provide them with opportunities to stay alive. When we intervene with love and hands-on support, we find that they are, in fact, bursting with the capacity to grow, to heal, and to become wonderful companions. We must simply give them the chance.

The process of raising kittens is as close to actual magic as I’ll ever get. The moment I bring home a new batch of filthy, hungry wiggle worms, it’s like I suddenly grow five extra hearts. Over the next several weeks I pour pure love into each individual, and it makes them transform from “hopelessly” scrawny into pudgy, strong- boned, affectionate little creatures who return the love tenfold. When it’s time...

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Verlag
Plume
Erscheinungsdatum
2019
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1524744069
ISBN 13 
9781524744069
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
336
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
gpsr@libri.de
gpsr@libri.de

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