Hip Hooray!

Winston Got Adopted!

Little Girl holding Winston, at the shelter.

The very last one of our bottle-feed kittens from last season has now gotten a new home!

A very nice, young, recently married couple came in to find their first pet to have together.  They came in with no expectations, and spent some time with every cat and kitten in the place.

They fell in love with Winston, and now he has his own place.  We are so excited.  He was here as a foster for so long that he would look at us with the oddest expression at the shelter, and at the other people working there, as if to ask, "Why in the world am I in this place?"

At last, i hope he will understand, at least a bit.

As for the shelter, it's amazing right now.  Every colony room only has 2-3 cats, instead of the usual 4-5.  Only two intake cages have a resident, and one of those has been adopted and will go home after her course of medication is done.  We have a few kittens, but not many, and they aren't tiny kittens.

Could it be that the almost 20 years of work in this area, trapping, neutering and releasing, and getting as many cats off the streets and into homes as we can, coordinated by 8 or so local organizations, is finally paying off?  Are we finally going to see an actual decline in feral cat numbers and the huge influx of so many more cats needing homes than we can help, even working all together?

This is something we can't answer right away, it's too soon to tell.  Right now, though, the respite is welcome, as are the adoption numbers.  Over 80 cats in January, over 70 so far this month and adoption events planned for today.

The situation is full of hope right now.  We've needed this for a long time.

 

Today is:

Bear Tie Ball -- Chicago, IL, US (the Bear Necessities Pediatric Cancer Foundation's black tie Fundraiser; this year's theme is "Latin Nights")

Camellia Festival 2014 -- Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, London, England (through Mar. 29)

Car Keys and Small Change Day -- ???

Dia de Andalucia -- Andalucia, Spain

DNA Day -- day in 1953 when Watson and Crick determined the double helix structure of DNA

Februalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (purification of Rome performed by citizens making sacrifices to the dead)

FESPACO Film Festival -- Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso (Panafrica's Film and TV Festival; through Mar. 7)

Floral Design Day -- a day to acknowledge this art form, sponsored by Rittners Floral School 

International Sword Swallowers Day -- information here  
  
Kalevala Day -- Finland (Finnish Culture Day)

National Chocolate Souffle' Day

National Science Day -- India

National Tooth Fairy Day - and/or August 22, depending on whom you ask

Nylon Day -- the first aliphatic polyamides were produced on this day in 1935

Open That Bottle Night -- time to finally drink that bottle of wine you've been saving for a special occasion; after all, the final Saturday in February only comes once a year (sponsored by Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher of The Wall Street Journal)  

Peace Memorial Day -- Taiwan

Philadelphia Flower Show -- Philadelphia, PA, US (largest flower show in the US; through the 9th)

Public Sleeping Day -- this one even has a wikiHow page  

Rare Disease Day -- International

Showa-Shinzan International Yukigassen Tournament -- Japan; snowball fighting (yukigassen) at its best, through tomorrow

St. Hedwig of Poland's Day (Patron of queens)

St. Romanus' Day (Patron of the mentally ill; against drowning, insanity)

Teacher's Day -- Algeria; Bahrain; Egypt; Jordan; Libya; Morocco; Oman; Saudi Arabia; Tunisia; United Arab Emirates; Yemen


Anniversaries Today:

University of Pittsburgh is chartered, 1787


Birthdays Today (Also includes Feb. 29 Birthdays)

Ali Larter, 1976
Robert Sean Leonard, 1969
John Tuturro, 1957
Gilbert Gottfried, 1955
Bernadette, Peters, 1948
Charles Aaron "Bubba" Smith, 1945
Brian Jones, 1942
Mario Andretti, 1940
Tommy Tune, 1939
Gavin MacLeod, 1930
Frank Gehry, 1929
Svetiana Allilueva, 1926
Charles Durning, 1923
Zero Mostel, 1915
Earl Scheib, 1907
Milton Caniff, 1907
Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel, 1906
Vincente Minnelli, 1903
Linus Pauling, 1901
Ben Heckt, 1894
Charles Blondin, 1824
John Tenniel, 1820
Mary Lyon, 1797
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, 1533


Antonio Sabato, Jr., 1972
Tony Robbins, 1960
Gretchen Christopher, 1940
Jack Lousma, 1936
Dinah Shore, 1916
Jimmy Dorsey, 1904
William Wellman, 1896
Herman Hollerith, 1860


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"On Golden Pond"(Play), 1979
"La Reine de Saba"(Opera), 1862
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling(Publication date), 1749


Today in History:

Coronation ceremony of Liu Bang as Emperor Gaozu of Han takes place, initiating four centuries of the Han Dynasty's rule over China, BC202
The first edition of Henry Fieldings' "Tom Jones" is published, 1749
John Wesley charters the Methodist Church, 1784
The first commercial railroad in US, Baltimore & Ohio (B&O) is chartered, 1827
Robert Nelson, leader of the Patriotes, proclaims the independence of Lower Canada (today Québec), 1838
Regular steamboat service from the west to the east coast of the United States begins with the arrival of the SS California in San Francisco Bay, 4 months 22 days after leaving New York Harbor, 1849
The Bulgarian Exarchate is established by decree of Sultan Abd-ul-Aziz of the Ottoman Empire, 1870
The American Telephone and Telegraph Company is incorporated in New York State as the subsidiary of American Bell Telephone, 1885
The USS Indiana, the lead ship of her class and the first battleship in the United States Navy comparable to foreign battleships of the time, is launched, 1893
Queen Ranavalona III, the last monarch of Madagascar, is deposed by a French military force, 1897
Egypt regains independence from Britain, but British troops remain, 1922
DuPont scientist Wallace Carothers invents Nylon, 1935
Basketball is televised for the first time, 1940
In Taiwan, civil disorder is put down with the loss of 30,000 civilian lives, 1947
James D. Watson and Francis Crick announce to friends that they have determined the chemical structure of DNA; the formal announcement takes place on April 25 following publication in April Nature (pub. April 2), 1953
The first-ever color television sets using the NTSC standard are offered for sale to the general public, 1954
The United States and People's Republic of China sign the Shanghai Communiqué, 1972
Andalusia approves its statute of autonomy through a referendum, 1980
GRB 970228, a highly luminous flash of gamma rays, strikes the Earth for 80 seconds, providing early evidence that gamma-ray bursts occur well beyond the Milky Way, 1997
First flight of RQ-4 Global Hawk, the first unmanned aerial vehicle certified to file its own flight plans and fly regularly in U.S. civilian airspace, 1998
Over 1 million Taiwanese participating in the 228 Hand-in-Hand Rally form a 500-kilometre (300-mile) long human chain to commemorate the 228 Incident in 1947, 2004
Jupiter flyby of the New Horizons Pluto-observer spacecraft, 2007
Egypt annunces the discovery of a granite head from a statue of King Tut's grandfather, Amenhotep III, 2010