Flower Girl
Meet Sarah Kate, also known as Kit Kat Kate. She's one of the three long-term inmates I rescued from the pokey back in December. She's small and sweet and has a little squeak of a meow. She's best buddies with panther-like Mr. Midnight (photo of him coming soon), loves to play, and graciously acts as alarm clock in the morning if you should foolishly attempt to sleep in. My mother fell in love with Sarah Kate during her recent visit, and, when not calling her Cuteness or demanding that her official name be changed to Kit Kat Kate, she was threatening to sneak her off the farm and back to California in her carry-on bag.
Sarah Kate's current favorite way to pass the time is to go in and out of The Shack about 90 times a day (via the homemade shredded-screen cat door so kindly created by The Doodle Monster), probably because she spent 8 months of 2007 in the slammer. It's hard to believe that in all that time nobody wanted to adopt her. I just love her to pieces.
Sadly there are millions of unwanted and homeless dogs and cats in this country, but thanks to the extraordinary efforts of artist and animal lover Bernie Berlin, that number continues to get a little smaller each day. For the past 8 years, Bernie has been running a full-time, non-profit animal rescue in Tennessee called A Place To Bark. . . And Meow. A Place To Bark is a 501c3 non-profit organization funded entirely by donations and Bernie's own personal money.
Last year alone, Bernie rescued and found homes for over 500 unwanted animals, many of whom were abused or injured. At times she has 50 or more dogs in her care. She literally goes to the pound and takes home dogs who are scheduled to be put down the next day. And somehow she miraculously has time to share her heartwarming and heartbreaking experiences on the A Place To Bark blog.
I think Bernie is one of the most wonderful people in the world, and thanks to the generosity of a whopping 2,400 animal lovers like you who made donations during January's America's Giving Challenge, Bernie will now be able to build a much needed shelter building on her property.
While A Place To Bark didn't win one of the four $50,000 America's Giving Challenge grants (so close in 5th place!), Bernie and the animals were still big winners. A Place To Bark received over $42,000 in donations, and the Zoline Foundation awarded her a matching $35,000 grant. The shelter building is going to become a reality, and Bernie will no longer have to bring dozens of dogs into her house during the winter.
Many, many thanks to all of you who made donations to A Place To Bark after reading my post about the challenge (and our newly adopted cat Topaz, who is doing great by the way) on Farmgirl Fare.
The winner of the signed copy of The Cornbread Gospels is Cyndee, who has 2 cats, 1 dog and 4 chickens - all adopted. The phone call from this foodie farmgirl will be going to Jeannine, who has a Cat Chalet on her front porch that is open to the local strays. Congratulations!
I'll be giving away another signed copy of The Cornbread Gospels soon (this is such a fun book), as well as several other neat new books, so stay tuned. In the meantime, if you're thinking of adding a new furry family member to your household, please consider adopting one from a shelter or animal rescue organization. It's a win-win situation for everyone. And if you're looking for a new pet charity to support, I hope you'll remember Bernie and A Place To Bark. Every penny makes a difference, and 100% of your tax-deductible donation always goes directly to helping the animals. Thank you!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where just because a houseguest looks around The Shack and says, "There are cats everywhere!" doesn't mean you have too many - and I'm so grateful for each and every one.
Topaz Reminds Me Of A Teddy Bear
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Update: A Place To Bark & The America's Giving Challenge $50,000 Grant
A huge thank you to all of you animal lovers who have so kindly donated to Bernie Berline's A Place To Bark non-profit animal rescue during this exciting and important fund drive. Bernie is absolutely overwhelmed by the outpouring of generosity from around the world, and the Zoline Foundation is so thrilled by the tremendous response that they've upped their $25,000 matching donation (which has already been matched!) to $35,000.
Right now A Place To Bark is in second place in the Giving Challenge, but the competition is quickly gaining on us, and only the four charities with the largest number of donations (not the highest amount of money donated) will win the $50,000 grant. These last two days will be crucial. All it takes to help Bernie realize her dream of constructing a shelter building for the hundreds of animals she rescues each year is a $10 tax-deductible donation made through A Place To Bark's Six Degrees badge, which you can find at the A Place To Bark blog or on my previous post: A Place To Meow, A Place To Bark, Another Phone Call From A Foodie Farmgirl, More Prizes, & How To Turn Ten Dollars Into Fifty Thousand. 100% of all donations go directly to the animals.
Everyone who donates will automatically be entered in a drawing for all sorts of wonderful prizes, including signed copies of books and beautiful original works of art created by Bernie and other talented artists.
In addition, I'll be holding two separate drawings: one for a half hour phone call from this foodie farmgirl (we'll chat about whatever you like) and one for a signed copy of the fun new cookbook, The Cornbread Gospels, by Crescent Dragonwagon. Simply leave me a comment or send me an e-mail (farmgirlfare AT gmail DOT com) letting me know you made a donation to A Place To Bark and if would like to be entered in one or both of the drawings. Again, thank you!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog where the dogs bark whenever they like and life is the cat's meow.
A new furry face on the farm
Many of you know that last June our magnificent New Cat died suddenly, most likely from a snake bite. And then a week later we lost Gretel, a sweetheart of a tabby cat who was my beloved companion for 20 years. What you don't know is that early last November we lost yet another cat, one you'd never met (she was very private). Twin was a beautiful Siamese mix who was Molly Doodlebug's half sister.
Their mother, an incredibly smart calico cat named Ollie, was one of the seven semi-feral felines that came with Windridge Farm. There were several litters of kittens born before I was finally able to get everyone caught up and spayed and neutered.
Twin was an outdoor cat who came to live in the house after she'd had her leg badly torn apart, probably by a coyote. I didn't think she would ever walk again, but with the help of Dr. Susan's Cat Repair Kit, I nursed her back to health (hydrogen peroxide is an amazing thing!), her leg healed up just fine, and she spent ten happy years amusing us in her own quiet way.
She didn't meow, she couldn't purr, and she pretty much stopped moving around once she realized that inaction was the best way to lose The Doodle Monster's constant interest in attacking her.
With both Twin and Gretel gone, only 12-year-old Molly was left in The Shack. The thought of being the 4-1/2 pound Doodle Monster's only potential indoor victim terrified Joe so much that, despite the fact that he happens to be extremely allergic to cats, he suggested we rescue a couple of cats from the always struggling, always overcrowded, and always underfunded no-kill shelter that we've been donating money to for years. Then he let me go there alone.
On December 1st, I visited the shelter and adopted the three adult cats who had been there the longest—because really, three cats is only one more than two. (My dear friend Beth kindly pointed out that three is actually a full 50% more than two, but I told her we weren't doing the math that way and to please keep that fact to herself.)
Topaz, who is pictured above, had been living at the shelter for 15 months. There was a big 'QUARANTINE' stamped on her paperwork because she had bitten a small boy and a teenage girl, and nobody wanted to risk adopting her.
She was curled up on the bed within an hour, and when I crawled in next to her later that night she ever-so-subtly shifted her body so that it was pressed against mine, gave my hand a lick, and began to purr. I started to cry. She's a total foodie, and her favorite place to be is on Joe's lap.
Panther-like Whiskers (who now goes by Mr. Midnight) and frisky little Sarah Kate had both been at the shelter for 8 months. These two are the best of friends, and if they ever stop chasing each other around the house I'll snap some pictures of them and introduce you.
It's been a long time since I've lived with young cats, and adopting this instant family has been way too much fun. I forgot how much energy two-year-old cats have! It's been quite a change going from animals that lay still for so long you have to check to make sure they're still breathing to crazy critters who start their day by doing top-speed laps around the bedroom and bouncing across the bed to wake you up.
Settling Into Life On The Farm
Adopting a pet from a shelter is a win-win situation for everyone. As shelters go, ours is very nice and the animals are treated well. But it isn't home. I'm so glad we could finally give these wonderful, loving cats a real one.
February 2011 update: Topaz is doing great and (for three seasons a year) has turned into quite the farm cat. You'll find lots more photos of her here. You can meet Mr. Midnight here and Sarah Kit Kat Kate here. They're both doing really well, too.
© 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the fur covered foodie farm blog where life is full of laughs and there's always plenty of fresh cream for the cats.
Yo! Do I look like I belong on a menu? I don't think so. And get your mitts off my mizuna!
As you can see, Whitey's foray into motherhood (which is so over, by the way) didn't soften her up one bit. At nearly eight years old, she's as feisty as ever - and having a grand time bossing everybody around. The other day she even laid an egg.
But this post isn't about Whitey The Chicken (though she would like it to be, and I do realize that an update about her and her chicks is long overdue); it's about the Menu For Hope food bloggers' fundraiser which raised a whopping $91,188.00 this year! Through the UN World Food Programme, over 86% of this money will go directly to an innovative school lunch program in Lesotho, Africa which helps not only hungry children but local family farms as well.
Thanks for all of your generous donations, to the dozens of prize donors and the regional hosts, and to Pim for creating this powerful event. Every year it just gets bigger and better. We had a stunning array of prizes raffled off this year, including some once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. You'll find the complete list of prizes and winners here.
As for who won the phone call from a foodie farmgirl? A big congratulations goes to longtime Farmgirl Fare reader (and huge fan of my Oatmeal Toasting Bread recipe) Jane Gardner. I'm looking forward to chatting with her and am curious to see what questions she has for me.
And if you were one of the other bidders on my prize (thank you!), you're in luck. I'm going to be offering another phone call from this foodie farmgirl as an incentive for you to donate $10 during a very special January fund drive for one of my favorite charities, A Place To Bark, which is run by one of the most amazing people in the world, artist and animal lover extraordinaire Bernie Berlin.
More details will be posted here in a day or two, but if you hate waiting and want to find out right this minute how your $10, 100% straight to the animals, tax-deductible donation to A Place To Bark will be automatically doubled, then possibly turned into $50,000, which would then be turned into a much needed shelter building for the hundreds of unwanted dogs and cats Bernie rescues each year, you can pop over to A Place To Bark and read this post. Oh yeah, and you might even win one of several great prizes, too.
Thanks again to all of you who helped make this year's Menu For Hope such a tremendous success. We couldn't have done it without you!
© Copyright 2008 FarmgirlFare.com, the award-winning blog that's sometimes taken over by a small chicken with a big attitude.
The winner of the signed copy of The Cornbread Gospels is Cyndee, who has 2 cats, 1 dog and 4 chickens - all adopted. The phone call from this foodie farmgirl will be going to Jeannine, who has a Cat Chalet on her front porch that is open to the local strays. Congratulations!
