They need LOVE !! Look at these lives being saved. Young, old, scared, and lost all given time and a second chance to find a home to love them!!
You guys have got to see these beautiful kitties that I get to play with EVERY day!! 
First we have Simon the Siamese (mix). He was from the very big colony that was surrendered to the animal control. He was pulled by a different rescue up North. He was very shy and skittish at first so we decided he needed a bit more time to socialize and decompress from all of his changes before being adopted. We are working hard every day to bring this sweet soul out of his shell. You can tell he wants to be loved and to love back but he is teetering on the wall of trust. He hasn't quite let go. Once he does, he is going to be a mushy lover-boy!! 
Next are the two "little" kittens I found New Years Eve just before our bone-chilling-week-long-snow-and-ice-kiss-your-summer-vacation-good-bye-winter-storm....lol Cricket and Malachi were just tiny tots when I first picked them up shivering on the front porch they had found. Oh they thought they were mighty and ferocious with their tiny little puffs of air they thought were hisses. They are now a pound heavier, and the hisses are now saved for the scary vacuum monster that visits. Cricket seems to be the most adventurous of the two for right now, but Malachi is the obvious lover!! They are still developing their personalities and it is so fun to watch. I think they miss their pal Jack, who is recovering with me after his eye surgery. (He gets his own post)
And last but not least we have the fabulous "Parker". Parker has been with us now for almost 3 weeks. She wandered right up to my mother in the parking lot at her job. We have posted her as a found cat and have shared her story with the shelter in the area she was found and have not had any luck finding out if she has a family. She appears to be very well cared for and not at all malnourished so we are thinking she might have slipped out before the storm. We hope if she has a family that they see her so we can reunite them. 
She is so friendly and loves this ball track. Our sweet volunteer Ms. Kaye bought her a light up ball for the track and she plays with it non stop. She is currently enjoying a fresh sprinkle of cat nip...she comes up for air in a few..lol. If no family claims Parker we will place her for adoption. We are accepting applications for her, but we are going to give her a little bit longer to find her family. We know we would hate to have one of ours missing and not know what happened.

If you are interested in adopting, you can fill out our adoption application here. :)

​This story has been long overdue and we wanted to share it with everyone when it happened, but we were all emotional at the time and we felt like this sweet boy deserved a well-written story of his short time with us.

We met O2 when we were out trapping the “white cat colony” on the evening of December 17. Audra had setup everything by the time I arrived there and all we had to do was put some hard-to-resist food in the traps (we use canned chicken and fish) and then wait. Soon after we put the food in the traps, we were able to trap several cats - it was so quick! We zip-tied the front (to prevent any escapees) and covered the traps with blankets and placed in the car. 

After we had seven cats in the car, progress started to slow down so we started to look in possible hiding spots. Turns out we missed a feeding station that was setup near one of the buildings and as I was coming around the car to help search, I saw Audra sneaking up to the feeding station and she quickly snatched up an orange buff male kitty! I did not recall seeing him last time and we later found out that he had recently shown up on the property. The caretakers loved him because he was a sweetheart. <3 Anyway, back to the story! I immediately went to get one of the cat crates so he could go in it. As Audra kneeled to put him in the crate, she noticed something was off about him but she couldn’t really describe it to me. We trapped three more cats that evening then setup everyone inside with a small dinner and called it quits for the night. 

The next morning, everyone was taken to the vet and all were spayed/neutered except one – the orange buff male we named O2 (Orange male #2). The vet said he was panting, breathing funny, and his color was off so they were going to keep him for monitoring. Anything that caused him stress resulted in heavy breathing and panting, which really concerned us as that was not anywhere near normal.

Because of this, we knew he needed additional attention and because of the necessary expenses involved with this, he was surrendered to us by his caretaker. We had hoped that it was something treatable, that this loving, sweet, handsome boy would have a chance and we could find him a home. We had several people working in the background on figuring out a plan that would be best for him with his current conditions. During all of this he was talkative at times and oh-so-sweet! We couldn’t let this boy down. But then we got the bad news from his x-rays….

He had a diaphragmatic hernia. Like me, most of you had probably never heard of this so I asked for a better understanding of what it meant. Basically, a diaphragmatic hernia is when the diaphragm has a tear in it that allows the abdominal contents to enter the chest cavity. This causes respiratory distress making it hard to breathe and is the reason why when O2 was stressed, he began panting and gasping for air. Having a diaphragmatic hernia is not an immediate death sentence as sometimes surgery is possible, but one look at the x-ray and it was very obvious that O2 had an extreme case. The vet said it was the worst she had ever seen!

The x-ray showed a very empty abdominal cavity and a very full chest cavity. Every single inch of possible intestine that could fit, was squished into his chest pushing on his lungs and heart. This was why he couldn’t crouch down to eat. This was why his gums were white due to the lack of oxygen flow through his lungs. This was why something seemed “off” about him the night we were trapping. We were devastated!

I then asked the question that always comes to mind afterwards – what caused this? Well, it can be a birth defect, but in cats, it can also be caused by blunt force trauma – being hit by a car, falling from a high place, or taking a heavy blow to the abdominal region. I cringed thinking about O2 having suffered from any of these!

Unfortunately there was no time to save O2 – the damage was already done and he was nearing the end. The vet’s prognosis was very grim with only a few hours more to live and if we let him be, he would've suffer through it. We decided it was time to let this sweet, precious boy go so that he did not have to continue in this kind of pain and suffering. 

TNR usually means Trap-Neuter-Return, but in this case the R stood for Rescue. In rescue, we try to save them all. We put our hearts and souls into it to do what needs to be done to provide the best life possible for those we care about. I feel, in this case, that we truly saved O2 and although the outcome was not what we wanted, he didn't have to suffer anymore and he was showered with lots of love until the end. <3 Rest in peace, sweet beautiful boy.

Hi everyone! Stephanie here to provide y'all with an update. We've been a little busy and delayed on posting a very important update about the colony we dubbed the "White Cat Colony" due to the large majority of the cats being beautiful white felines. This is one of the main colonies we asked for funding to spay/neuter back in early December and thanks to those donations we were able to trap 11 kitties on the first day!
It was my first time trapping with Audra and I was very impressed with Audra's knowledge and creative problem-solving skills - no wonder she does so well at trapping! All of the traps filled up quickly which is partly why we had to stop at 11 cats because we were completely full. Pamlico Animal Hospital and Welcome Waggin' Mobile Veterinary Clinic were able to fit these cats into their schedules so that they could be spayed/neutered and released the very next day.
Unfortunately with the weather getting colder, we decided conditions were not ideal to trap the remaining cats and so once weather becomes more favorable, we will go back to trap the remaining cats so that more babies will not be born into this colony.
The other situation with this colony is that the people feeding them are hoping that we can find placement for some of the cats there to reduce the financial burden that has been placed on them. Feeding 20 cats twice a day is costly for one household to manage. There are several cats who are shy, but are friendly once they have time to warm up to you and these may be available for adoption at a later date. If you are at all interested, please let us know!
The other option that we are working on is a "Working Cat Program" or as some people like to say "barn cats." We are in the process of defining this program and setting it up and feel that some of these cats may be perfect for this. Working Cats are great for reducing and repelling rodents from your home or business - think of it as an "all-natural" pest control. They can work at breweries, retail stores, farms, warehouse, police/fire stations, and in many other businesses. If you're at all interested in something like this, please let us know and we will notify you once we get this program up and running.
Thank you again to all of you who support us! We are looking forward to a great 2018!