Cars Can’t Groom Themselves!
That’s right, we need to wash our cars! Whiskers, your local no-kill cat shelter and rescue group, is thrilled to announce its upcoming Whiskers Wash Fundraiser in partnership with Hoffman Helping Hands, by Hoffman Car Wash! I received email from the fund raising coordinator that the goal is to raise $5,000. I think we can help blow that goal out of the water, car wash style!!
Here’s how you can wash your car, which you were going to do anyway, and help raise money to go towards Whiskers new shelter project:
Open your web browser and go to http://hoffmanfr.washassist.com/fundraiser/campaign/Ewhiskers to access the Whiskers Wash campaign.
You can select 1 or more of the following
Ultimate with Interior Clean
Ultimate Wash
Make sure the second screen has the correct total items you want to purchase; you can change the number.
You can pay online with a credit card or debit card and vouchers will be delivered to your email address.
On the page where you enter your credit card information, there is one field that asks “What child/seller are you supporting?” You can just type in “Whiskers.”
If you want to pay in cash or by check, let me know. I have a paper order form and can physically sign you up and collect payment. Those vouchers will be delivered in person later, though! Vouchers can be purchased through June 30.
Hoffman Carwash donates 50% of all proceeds to Whiskers. The vouchers do not expire. You can redeem them at any Exterior, Full Service, or Touch Free location. You can’t use them at the self-service locations.
I’m ordering my vouchers online right now … we’ll see if my car interior will qualify for a normal cleaning!
Local Ailurophile Publishes Cat Tales
I admit it! I asked Google AI “What do you call a person who writes about cats?” I don’t know what I expected, but I thought it was worth asking. “Ailurophile” is my new word of the week! And guess what? It means, “A lover of cats.” So, a person who loves cats and writes about them can be called an ailurophile writer.
Anyway, I started exploring the idea of introducing you to local authors who have written about cats! I happen to know two of these people, and this week I’m going to tell you about my interview with Carolyn Trombe of Wynantskill, a published ailurophile!
Carolyn Trombe’s cat story is in this book!
I first met Carolyn, her husband Brian, and their many cats back in June 2010, when I was helping their pet sitter out with giving Wimsey (the cat) subcutaneous fluids while Carolyn & Brian went away. (I learned that Wimsey was named named after Lord Peter Wimsey, from the detective series by Dorothy Sayers.)
Carolyn and I use the same pet sitter, Wendy Nigro, of Purrfect Petsitting. Wendy will do a lot of things, but she does draw the line at subQ fluids. When Wendy has a cat customer who needs fluids, we team up!
I recently recalled Carolyn telling me a story about one of her cats from before my time, and her cat’s adventures, and how she had that story published. Fast forward to 2026 and I sent Carolyn a text message to ask about that story and if she would be willing to talk with me for a newsletter article. We’ve had many long conversations about cats before, so I knew we would at least have a fun visit!
“Ollie,” the senior cat of Carolyn’s household, joined our conversation.
Carolyn texted me right back and we set up a time to meet up at her house. I learned that Carolyn had since published a second cat story and is working on a book about her first cat rescue in the 1990s, but more on that another week!
Today’s story is about her and Brian’s cat, “Patches,” and the first cat story Carolyn had published, in a Chicken Soup for the Soul book titled, “What I Learned from the Cat, 101 Stories about Life, Love, and Lessons.”
As far as I can find out online (take it with a grain of salt), the first Chicken Soup for the Soul book was rejected 144 times by publishers. The editors did find a small publisher in Florida in 1993 to get their first book going. Chicken Soup for the Soul focuses on short, true, inspirational stories from people interested sharing their life events. Their web site says Chicken Soup for the Soul publishes 10 new books each year.
Carolyn’s first cat story was published in 2009, and I asked her how she discovered the opportunity. She said that she subscribed to a Chicken Soup for the Soul e-mail newsletter and read about the call for stories there.
“Patches Goes to Camp,” is a great story about how Patches took matters into her own paws, and somehow trotted down the road from home to Camp Scully, an overnight summer camp, on Snyder’s Lake in Wynantskill. Carolyn had recently married into the cat household, and she describes her uneasiness with Patches being an indoor-outdoor cat, but apparently this cat lifestyle was entrenched before Carolyn had any say in the matter.
Patches was returned to her home multiple times by the camp director, but finally, the humans gave in, and let Patches stay at the camp. Carolyn’s story describes the positive interactions Patches had with the campers, who basically became her waitstaff, although Patches also gave the children a sense of security, since they were away from home, many for the first time.
Patches must have really enjoyed the camp lifestyle, as she attended for a total of four years before she passed away from cat old-age kidney failure at 14. Patches is even buried at Camp Scully. I don’t want to give away all the story details, in case you want to read Carolyn’s story yourself.
Believe it or not, you can still buy this book from 2009 on Amazon (I looked)! I mean why not? It’s almost 400 pages of great cat stories! Our local library system has the book as well. If you don’t have the UHLS (Upper Hudson Library System) app for you phone, I do recommend downloading it. Just search on “What I Learned form the Cat,” and check it out! Of course you can also go to urls.org in your web browser.
I love that someone I know got her unique cat story out to the world. She has another published cat story, which I’ll cover another week, and at some point we’ll take a peek into her cat memoir that is in the works!
Free Rabies Vaccinations (for Cats)
Image from Facebook.
I know the image I copied from Facebook isn’t that easy to read. What you need to know is that cat owners can save $75 (that’s what I paid last week for a technician to give one of my cats a rabies vaccination) by going to this limited-time rabies vaccination clinic.
The clinic is on Saturday, June 6. It is from 8:00 am to noon. You should pre-register because there are only a limited number of vaccinations available. The image has a URL you can use for registration.
The location is Hoosick Highway Department, 698 Wilson Hill Rd., in Hoosick Falls. There is a note asking people to bring a certificate from the cat’s prior rabies vaccination. The ad does not say if they are giving one-year or three-year vaccinations.
Feel free to pass the information along to others!
The Transfurmation has Begun!
Dozens of people volunteered their time and talent Memorial Day weekend to make Whiskers’ first new shelter clean out a big success! Volunteers filled a 20 yard dumpster with pulled up carpet, blinds and their brackets, old telephone jacks, old cabinets, and everything else that was left behind from the previous tenants. One expert installed plumbing for a utility sink and washing machine and a donated washing machine should be in place soon.
My husband, Alan, and I were there on the first day. The big event was seeing the army of people it took to get the very-well-glued-down wall-to-wall carpeting separated from the plywood subfloor in one of the upstairs hallways. It was crazy to watch one expert reciprocating saw user basically cut away the carpet from the glue! Once large pieces of carpet were freed from their adhesive state, more people attacked the carpet with utility knives to cut it into manageable pieces and carried the remains downstairs and across the parking lot to the dumpster. We all got a lot of exercise that weekend!
The most exciting plywood vista ever!
SO much more carpet to remove!
Floors in eight of the rooms on the second floor are now ready to have vinyl flooring installed. This is a temporary measure, to protect the plywood until the full building renovation happens. Whiskers recently connected with Carpet Warehouse on Wolf Rd. to rescue a mom cat and kitten — the grateful business owner then helped Whiskers obtain the vinyl at cost. He also donated $500 to Whiskers. Please check out Carpet Warehouse the next time you need flooring. Networking in action!
Tails From the Feeding Station
Last week’s Capital Purrspective ongoing cat saga led readers up to the point where Cetan, our feral catch from the Curse of the Trail Camera scenario, was neutered, vaccinated, tested for FIV and FeLV, and treated for fleas and worms. It described how he barely tolerated us serving him food and providing in-home shelter until he could have his dental surgery.
At this point in the story, we are now feeling stuck with this feral cat and have accepted our fate to try to make him into a reasonably acceptable house cat. My husband Alan, and I, were trying to convince ourselves that we were not adding yet another cat to the household and that there is actually some glimmer of hope (however distant and dim) that someone, someday, will want to take Cetan to their home!
After Cetan recovered in a cage for a week post dental surgery, I moved him into the foster-overflow room. The doorway has a tall gate with vertical bars. Kind of like a jail cell, but fortunately cats don’t know what that is! The door is pretty easy to unlatch and swing open so that people can get into and out of the room. We’ve only had one cat actually scale the gate!
The room is located in an active area of the house. Cats can see and hear the household activity and observe the cats allowed to roam the house. As I mentioned in an earlier article, we found out by accident that this helps socialize the cats much more quickly than if they were closed up in a room with a solid door. Same idea as having a new foster cat in a cage on a table right in the living room.
The following actions took place over one year! Yes, one year. We did not want to let him out of the room too soon. We were trying very hard to not add to the semi-feral cat collection we already have. We decided that we had to be able to pet him and pick him up. It would be nice if he liked to get petted, as well.
To actually move Cetan, I closed the door of the cat carrier that was inside the cage in the living room, when he was in the cat carrier. I then was able to transport him into the other room. We hung a sheet from a shelf that is part of a free-standing clothes storage rack so that it hung down to the floor. I put the cat carrier on the floor, behind that sheet, so that Cetan could be in the carrier but be hiding behind the sheet. (I propped the door of the cat carrier open so that he would not get closed in there.)
Cetan’s hideout.
Cetan would hide in the cat carrier if he knew we were around, so it became the safe spot that we wanted him to have. He also had two pieces of furniture he could go under.
He had a soft-sided cat pyramid he could sit in. We put food and water on tray by the cat carrier so that he didn’t have to come too far out of hiding to eat. The litter box was on other side of the small room, by the door. There were two windows with perches. And we gave him a cardboard scratcher and cat toys, of course.
Progress: relaxing in his pyramid.
More progress: out in the open!
We always announced dinner by tapping the metal food dish when we brought in fresh canned food. It took time, but he would come out to eat after we left the room but were still in the doorway.
After a while, if one of us sat or kneeled on the floor while scooping his litter box, he would come out and eat.
Next step, he did start looking out the gate, to watch cats, reach out to them, and call for them.
Always up for a cat convention!
One of our cats, Galaxy, gets medicine twice a day. This will be for the rest of her life, so it’s a routine that never ends. I started off putting her onto the bed, in the room across from Cetan, to make it easy for me to get the pills into her mouth. I give her treats after each stage. Somehow I ended up tossing treats to Cetan, through his gate, into his room. At first, he didn’t eat them. Then he started to chase them! This was really our first joint interaction. After that, he’d be at the door in the morning and the evening for the treats.
We then started playing with a feather wand toy with him, through the gate. Two games formed, one with the feather under the gate at one end of the doorway, The other game was to reach in further with the wand and push the feathers under the open solid door, which was on his side of the gate … Cetan would run behind the door to get the feathers.
After he started to like the feather toy, we tried to “pet” him with the feather wand toy. At first he would run off as if he had been burned or shocked.
He did start to follow us for food when we would bring it into his room. We still couldn’t touch him.
Finally, we were able to pet him, upper shoulder & head area only, with the feather toy, Anything else, he’d run off.
Then, one day, I had to take his cat carrier to use in the cage with another cat. I replaced it with a larger cat carrier. He never went into it! For some reason he just completely rejected the new cat carrier. He would sit in the cat pyramid. No more hiding. This one change accidentally triggered more progress!
I brought in a pair of large, thick, work gloves. The plan was to wear them to start trying to pick him up. Not sure how it happened, but we were able to pet him with the gloves on, if he wasn’t looking at us. If we touched him with a bare hand, he would hiss and jump away.
One of the gloves … Cetan let us pet him if we wore these gloves.
Eventually, if we kneeled on the floor, he would circle around us, rubbing on our legs. He would sit next to me, looking away, and I started to pet him all the way down his back, with gloves on. Once he allowed this on a regular basis, I would do one pet with a gloved hand and one with a bare hand …. while he was looking away. Eventually, he acted like he didn’t notice the bare hand.
The final step was being able to lift him, even just 6 inches off of the floor, for a few seconds. I wanted to feel like I could get him into a cat carrier. He eventually reluctantly, allowed this, after much running away.
One year had gone by. It was finally time to open the door and let him out!
Graduation Day!
He quickly explored the house, but got lost in the basement and hid for a day. Something freaked him out and he rarely goes into the basement. The other (physically able) cats go into the basement regularly.
Cetan discovered the people bed. He jumped up there one day when another cat was snoozing on the bed. After that, he was regularly seen snoozing on the bed. The first night he jumped up onto the bed after I had gone to bed was funny. He was absolutely SHOCKED to see a person on the bed and he hopped right off. Next night he stayed for a little bit. When he hopped up another night and discovered two people in the bed, he fled! Next night, he stayed for a minute. Cetan repeats this pattern over and over, and makes progress every day.
The final frontier, nail trimming. I actually lifted him onto the bed one day and trimmed just one nail! I didn’t die and neither did he! Slowly, we have progressed to the point where last week I lifted him onto the bed and trimmed all of his front nails, including the extra ones between his thumbs and his regular paws!
Looking cute! (On the bed, with a human!)
From before I could trim his nails.
We worked so hard with Cetan that he is actually a super-interactive cat. He comes to the bedroom twice a day for treats, and he still likes to chase them. He will come running to see me or Alan. He flops down on the ground right in front of us, to get petted. Cetan will grab a wrist if you don’t pet him long enough, or grab your ankle if you dare to walk away, He is talkative and very cute! He plays with toys and tries very hard to get other cats to play with him. He still has not sat on a lap, but he will now sit on the couch if a human is sitting there. Cetan even tried leaning against me once!
Every day we are amazed at this cat, and wonder out loud what happened inside his little head that made him decide to trust us and interact. We still have not brought him to an adoption clinic at PetSmart. I’m not sure how that would go, but we might try it some day. As I mentioned last week, he is available for adoption. He does need to go to a home with multiple cats, though.
Well, now we have Bennu in the overflow cat room … another extra cat we ended up with. More on that next time!
See you next week!