Your Donation Doubled!!

We love seeing DOUBLE...

CATS Cradle has a wonderful supporter who has generously offered to DOUBLE donations up to $500.00.  If you would like to see your donation matched, now is the time to donate.  Simply mail your donation with the word DOUBLE in the memo line to:

 CATS Cradle Shelter
"Seeing Double"
9 -Ninth Street South
Fargo, ND 58103

OR...

Click on the DONATE tab at www.catscradleshelter.org and leave the word DOUBLE in the notation.

Friday Open House!!

We will be having a special Open House on Friday, November 28 from 2:00 pm - 7:00 pm.  

1/2 off the adoption fee for adult cats

Stop by and see all the cats that are looking to find their special family.  Your forever friend is waiting to meet you.

We typically have 40 - 50 cats in-house that are waiting for their forever home.  Here are pictures of just a few of the cats that CCS has rescued.  Stop by and meet them in person!

Cisco

Crockett

Francine

Greta

Hennessey

Lisa 

Molly

Willis

Naming Your Cat

Naming your cat helps you create a lifelong bond.  Some names come to us quickly and just seem to fit our felines.  Other cats take more time to name to decide on.

Here are some cute names for girl cats along with some of the great girls we currently have at the shelter.  Come visit us today between 12:00 and 5:00

Alexia

All cats are cute, but some have the personalities that require a cute name, like:

Amelia
Bella
Daisy
Gracie
Isabelle
Mia
Mimi
Olive
Pearl
Winnie

Carolina

Greta

Some female cats have a regal air about them and would be a great fit for an elegant name. Options include:

Bianca
Duchess
Eloise
Gertrude
Guinevere
Harper
Scarlett
Sophia
Stella
Theodora

Glory

Trista

You could also mix things up and pick an international name. Fun ideas include:

Akira
Athena
Brunhilda
Chaca
Frida
Nairobi
Olga
Pandora
Petra
Rosario

Pippi

Portia

Taken from http://www.findcatnames.com/girl-cat-names-we-love/

Fundraiser- Pampered Chef

Do you live in the U.S.?  Hey all you fabulous cooks out there...the first rule of a great meal is cooking with quality kitchenware. We have an online Pampered Chef part currently going on and a portion of the proceeds will go to CATS Cradle Shelter. Get your orders in now, the party closes on November 19th so your orders can arrive before Thanksgiving.

Pampered Chef Fundraiser Link

www.pamperedchef.com

Together, we can make a difference for all the wonderful kittens and cats rescued and cared for by Cat's Cradle. Let's help keep this amazing organization running so they can continue to find forever homes for our furry little friends. Order Pampered Chef products through the Fundraiser Catalog Sho…

PAMPEREDCHEF.COM

How to Keep Your Cat Off Tables and Counters

Why do cats find counters so appealing? Take this quiz to find out:

A. Because they're there.
B. Because cats naturally prefer a three-dimensional environment.
C. Because cats occasionally find food morsels while patrolling countertops.
D. All of the above.

Answer D is correct.

The Downside

There are many good reasons why your cat should stay off the counter. Cats spend a fair amount of time each day in their litter box, scratching around and covering up their waste. Although they frequently "wash" their paws with their tongues, it is likely that some traces of urine and feces will remain on their paws to be deposited on your countertops in molecular concentrations. Not a great thought if you are about to prepare food.

Also, while they are up on counters, cats may pause to lick the butter or steal nibbles or whole chunks of food that you have left lying around. It can be pretty annoying to find that your cooling bacon strips have been dragged to the floor as cat fodder. In addition, not everything the cat steals will be good for him – and some things, like chicken bones, can be downright harmful. 

Counterpoint

Some may argue that healthy cat urine and feces has never poisoned anyone. Urine, as you may know, is normally sterile. In fact, Mahatma Gandhi used to drink a pint of his own urine each morning to start the day. When a cat has urinary tract disease or intestinal parasites (especially Toxoplasma gondii), however, this safety factor is lost. UTDs are easy to spot and the presence of intestinal parasites can be determined by laboratory tests. Both are usually easy to treat. Just ask your vet.

As far as disappearing food is concerned, cats don't eat much and, with the correct dental care, their mouths should be fairly healthy places anyway. 

How To Get 'Em Off 

Here are several things you can do to keep kitty where he belongs:

Make sure that your cat has other places to climb so that the countertop is not his only vertical challenge. Climbing frames positioned by a window, providing a perch with a view, may divert some attention from the counters.

Make sure that your counters never have food items lying around on them. Always clean up properly by putting unused food away. A cat that finds morsels of food once in a while will keep looking for more for many moons.

Make counters unattractive. Cats, generally, do not like the smell of citrus or disinfectants. Try using a countertop cleaner with a citrus odor or wash the countertops down with Pinesol® after use.

Train your cat - preferably using "click and treat" methodology. Train your cat to jump down to the cue word "off." First train the cat to touch a wand (touch-click-food reward) that later serves as a target. When the wand is positioned over the counter, the cat will have to jump up on the counter to touch the wand and get the click and treat. (You can't teach a cat to jump off unless she is up in the fist place!). The wand is then lowered to floor level. The cat jumps down to touch it (click-treat). Finally the word "off" is interjected as the wand is lowered to the floor. Of course, you do not always need to use the wand once the behavior (jumping down) has been put "on cue." But rewards are necessary from time to time if the cat is to stay trained.

Booby traps/mild punishers. Various booby traps have been invented to deter cats from counter surfing. Some of these deterrents include: putting cling film over the countertop, making a shallow tray out of aluminum foil and filling it with water, various springing devices (upside-down mousetraps or proprietary plastic jumping frogs), or attaching a black thread "trip wire" across the access to the counter and attaching it to a nearby pile of shake cans.

More severe punishers. Sounding an air horn (boat horn/fog horn) at exactly the moment the cat's feet touch the countertop. You should hide when doing this. The idea is that the cat thinks that the counter made the noise, not you. Some people have resorted to electric shock pads that give the cat a mild shock when he jumps on the counter tough these can cause considerable distress to some cats.

The only alternative is to teach yourself not to worry so much about your cat being up on the counters. This is the cognitive approach to therapy – for you. 

My cats free range across my countertops while I'm watching them because they know I don't care. I could yell at them and chase them off, as many people do, but why bother? All you teach your cat by this approach is that you are unpredictable, mentally unstable, and should be watched carefully for signs of sudden behavioral meltdowns. Then, when you're not around, your cat will cruise and patrol the counters as if nothing had changed. The only thing punishment teaches an animal is how to avoid the punisher ... you. With the remote punishers, the situation's a little more acceptable in the sense that it's the counter that they avoid.

Source: www.petplace.com