Stash's Journey to Adoption
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Update on Stash - January 2020 - (He was adopted!!!)
As you may recall, Stash came to Kingdom Animal Shelter with some serious behavioral issues. Pam Parkinson has been fostering him and working with him and feels he is ready to go to his forever home with someone who is cat savvy and can recognize behavioral cues well. So, Pam decided to adopt Stash!
Here are some recent updates from Pam:
December 3
Good morning! We had a good Thanksgiving, hope everyone there did as well. Stash continues to do well. I catch him sitting by his fence with the other cats close on the other side, and he comes out of his room to investigate dog noise. We are getting out Christmas decorations, and he seems to enjoy watching the activity. Hope all is well there!
Take Care,
Pam
December 9
Helen,
I hope this finds you well, and ready for the holidays. Stash continues to do well, loving being petted and playing games. He is very excited about Christmas! He heard there are presents! Lol
Have a great week!
Pam and Stash
December 23
Hi Helen,
Stash continues to do well. We have been practicing stopping him with 2 hands for a split second, to get him used to being held a bit firmer, and directed in a direction that is different from where he was heading. The trust continues to grow between us! Have a great holiday.
Pam and Stash
January 1, 2020
Hi Helen!
Hope your Christmas was great, and Happy New Year! Stash is doing very well. He loved Christmas, getting new toys and having extra playtime. He and I have seemed to turn a corner together. When he looks at me, he no longer is studying me, but his expressions are loving. He craves interaction with me, greeting me excitedly! He and I had a talk, and we decided to ask you if he could make this his forever home. We don't know how much he will ever be able to embrace his feline siblings, but we deal with that effectively now, and can continue to do so. He promises to keep learning and striving to be the best kitty he can possibly be. I promise to love and teach him, and look out for every aspect of his well being. He thinks it would be nice to start the new year having his very own, very understanding mom.
Thanks,
Pam and Stash
As you may recall, Stash came to Kingdom Animal Shelter with some serious behavioral issues. Pam Parkinson has been fostering him and working with him and feels he is ready to go to his forever home with someone who is cat savvy and can recognize behavioral cues well. So, Pam decided to adopt Stash!
Here are some recent updates from Pam:
December 3
Good morning! We had a good Thanksgiving, hope everyone there did as well. Stash continues to do well. I catch him sitting by his fence with the other cats close on the other side, and he comes out of his room to investigate dog noise. We are getting out Christmas decorations, and he seems to enjoy watching the activity. Hope all is well there!
Take Care,
Pam
December 9
Helen,
I hope this finds you well, and ready for the holidays. Stash continues to do well, loving being petted and playing games. He is very excited about Christmas! He heard there are presents! Lol
Have a great week!
Pam and Stash
December 23
Hi Helen,
Stash continues to do well. We have been practicing stopping him with 2 hands for a split second, to get him used to being held a bit firmer, and directed in a direction that is different from where he was heading. The trust continues to grow between us! Have a great holiday.
Pam and Stash
January 1, 2020
Hi Helen!
Hope your Christmas was great, and Happy New Year! Stash is doing very well. He loved Christmas, getting new toys and having extra playtime. He and I have seemed to turn a corner together. When he looks at me, he no longer is studying me, but his expressions are loving. He craves interaction with me, greeting me excitedly! He and I had a talk, and we decided to ask you if he could make this his forever home. We don't know how much he will ever be able to embrace his feline siblings, but we deal with that effectively now, and can continue to do so. He promises to keep learning and striving to be the best kitty he can possibly be. I promise to love and teach him, and look out for every aspect of his well being. He thinks it would be nice to start the new year having his very own, very understanding mom.
Thanks,
Pam and Stash
Stash is Ready! - November 2019
As many of you may remember, Stash came into Kingdom Animal Shelter’s care on February 11, 2019. Over time it became clear that although Stash was a handsome and intelligent boy and wanting to interact and be loved, he had some serious behavioral issues. On August 17, Stash went to live with Pam Parkinson. She has been working with him ever since and we cannot be more appreciative. Pam feels that, given the right situation, he is ready to go to a loving and understanding home.
Here is what Pam writes:
“Stash is a gorgeous large male tuxedo kitty. He is very inquisitive and loves to explore. He appreciates a good rubbing/massage when he initiates it. He is a very dominant individual, and has been working very hard learning to control his emotions. Stash is very intelligent, and does best when being mentally challenged. He has learned to come, and he has learned to sit. (Yes, he is a cat! Lol). He needs a home without any other kitties as he is very territorial and can be quite aggressive with others of his kind. Stash seems to do well with dogs, provided they won't get mad if he swats them. Stash believes he is in charge of everything, so needs an adopter willing to continue his behavior training program and medication with him. Stash needs a consistent schedule, with very limited chaos, so unfortunately, children are out of the question. Potential adopters should be very experienced with cats and their body language.”
Pam continues:
“He is as ready as he can be to move on to training with an adopter. They will need to be willing to train and gain his respect. I love how inquisitive he is. He does not let anything get past without a good inspection. I also love how appreciative he is and how he just loves to be rubbed. He is not an overly affectionate cat, in that he has to want the attention, you cannot force it on him. Stash's success and well-being depend on his adopter understanding him, his behaviors, and his limitations, and their willingness and ability to work with him safely. He is welcome here as long as that takes.”
As an aside, Stash loves Cream Cheese. It is a great motivator of proper behavior for him.
If you or anyone you know might be interested in adopting Stash, please let us know. He is a magnificent cat and deserves just the right understanding home.
As many of you may remember, Stash came into Kingdom Animal Shelter’s care on February 11, 2019. Over time it became clear that although Stash was a handsome and intelligent boy and wanting to interact and be loved, he had some serious behavioral issues. On August 17, Stash went to live with Pam Parkinson. She has been working with him ever since and we cannot be more appreciative. Pam feels that, given the right situation, he is ready to go to a loving and understanding home.
Here is what Pam writes:
“Stash is a gorgeous large male tuxedo kitty. He is very inquisitive and loves to explore. He appreciates a good rubbing/massage when he initiates it. He is a very dominant individual, and has been working very hard learning to control his emotions. Stash is very intelligent, and does best when being mentally challenged. He has learned to come, and he has learned to sit. (Yes, he is a cat! Lol). He needs a home without any other kitties as he is very territorial and can be quite aggressive with others of his kind. Stash seems to do well with dogs, provided they won't get mad if he swats them. Stash believes he is in charge of everything, so needs an adopter willing to continue his behavior training program and medication with him. Stash needs a consistent schedule, with very limited chaos, so unfortunately, children are out of the question. Potential adopters should be very experienced with cats and their body language.”
Pam continues:
“He is as ready as he can be to move on to training with an adopter. They will need to be willing to train and gain his respect. I love how inquisitive he is. He does not let anything get past without a good inspection. I also love how appreciative he is and how he just loves to be rubbed. He is not an overly affectionate cat, in that he has to want the attention, you cannot force it on him. Stash's success and well-being depend on his adopter understanding him, his behaviors, and his limitations, and their willingness and ability to work with him safely. He is welcome here as long as that takes.”
As an aside, Stash loves Cream Cheese. It is a great motivator of proper behavior for him.
If you or anyone you know might be interested in adopting Stash, please let us know. He is a magnificent cat and deserves just the right understanding home.
Stash Fans Update - October 2019
This from Pamela on September 29. She is working wonders with Stash. He is coming along so nicely.
“Hi Helen,
Stash has been meeting more of the beagles, through his fence. He does not like if they are barking, but comes right up to see them if they are quiet. He goes back into his room and onto his cat tree if I let my big shep mix over because he can tell she wants to chase. This morning I let 2 kitties into his room while feeding cream cheese. He was good. He did get agitated when Felina wanted up in the window. He swatted at her, but I was right there and asked him to stop and he did, and so he got more cream cheese. His favorite is the salmon flavored cream cheese! He seems happy, loves to be petted, sniffs everybody through his fence and is much more laid back! He seeks interaction as soon as he sees me now, he is much less distracted. He will stand up on my leg and purr and ask to be scratched. He even takes his paw and gently takes hold of my hand and pulls it over to him to see what I have for him. Such a silly boy. We will keep working, he is doing so well.
Thanks,
Pam”
This from Pamela on September 29. She is working wonders with Stash. He is coming along so nicely.
“Hi Helen,
Stash has been meeting more of the beagles, through his fence. He does not like if they are barking, but comes right up to see them if they are quiet. He goes back into his room and onto his cat tree if I let my big shep mix over because he can tell she wants to chase. This morning I let 2 kitties into his room while feeding cream cheese. He was good. He did get agitated when Felina wanted up in the window. He swatted at her, but I was right there and asked him to stop and he did, and so he got more cream cheese. His favorite is the salmon flavored cream cheese! He seems happy, loves to be petted, sniffs everybody through his fence and is much more laid back! He seeks interaction as soon as he sees me now, he is much less distracted. He will stand up on my leg and purr and ask to be scratched. He even takes his paw and gently takes hold of my hand and pulls it over to him to see what I have for him. Such a silly boy. We will keep working, he is doing so well.
Thanks,
Pam”
Stash's Journey: An Update - September 2019
Many of you will remember Stash, a gorgeous and very intelligent five year old tuxedo cat. He came to us about 6 months ago with some serious behavior issues. We engaged the help of a trainer and vet tech who specializes in behavior, Pamela Parkinson, who gave us many good and insightful suggestions on how to help Stash be his best self. In addition, Stash was on Fluoxetine (Prozac) and that seemed to help a great deal. But so many unpredictable events occur in a shelter, and Stash had trouble with things unexpected and with interacting with the other cats. And so, Pamela offered to take Stash into her own home and work with him. He has been with her for about three weeks now. And we are so happy to report that he is doing extremely well. She has had him with her other cats and they are getting along. Her cats are trained to move away from a particular cat at her command, so they never get Stash to feeling threatened. She plans on introducing him to a dog soon. All of this will help him be his best self and become adoptable.
We are extremely grateful to Pamela for being will and even eager to work with him in her home setting. A note of interest: Stash loves cream cheese!
Many of you will remember Stash, a gorgeous and very intelligent five year old tuxedo cat. He came to us about 6 months ago with some serious behavior issues. We engaged the help of a trainer and vet tech who specializes in behavior, Pamela Parkinson, who gave us many good and insightful suggestions on how to help Stash be his best self. In addition, Stash was on Fluoxetine (Prozac) and that seemed to help a great deal. But so many unpredictable events occur in a shelter, and Stash had trouble with things unexpected and with interacting with the other cats. And so, Pamela offered to take Stash into her own home and work with him. He has been with her for about three weeks now. And we are so happy to report that he is doing extremely well. She has had him with her other cats and they are getting along. Her cats are trained to move away from a particular cat at her command, so they never get Stash to feeling threatened. She plans on introducing him to a dog soon. All of this will help him be his best self and become adoptable.
We are extremely grateful to Pamela for being will and even eager to work with him in her home setting. A note of interest: Stash loves cream cheese!
Stash’s Journey to Wellness - May 2019
Stash is a 4 - 5 year old male who came to Kingdom Animal Shelter on February 11, 2019. He had been living with an elderly gentleman who then passed away. And Stash had nowhere to go. People were taking care of him in his home, but there was really little human contact. And so, Stash became a member of the Shelter family.
Kingdom Animal Shelter really tries to go above and beyond what many shelters do for their residents in terms of health care. And health care includes not only physical health, but emotional health, as well. When issues present themselves, even quite serious ones, we do all we can to make them well again. That is what our Chucky Fund, our volunteers, and our vets enable us to do.
Emotional health can be trickier than physical health. There is no blood work, no x-rays to help diagnose emotional difficulties. One cannot get inside the mind of the cat to see what is motivating them to behave in certain ways. If a cat seems depressed, as they sometimes do, we can provide enrichment. And if they really aren’t thriving in the Shelter setting, we find a foster where they can get the space and individual attention they need.
It became apparent over time that Stash was a special case with some serious behavioral issues. He hated being confined in the smaller castles. He got quite riled up in the presence of other cats. So, we moved him to his own special large colony room. Even there, he could get worked up seeing other cats out his window. If he was out in the lobby he would get into fights with other cats under their doors. Volunteers going to pick him up might find him quite a safety challenge to get back into his room.
It also became quite apparent that Stash is an extremely intelligent cat, who gets bored quite easily. He loves to engage with people, get in their laps, be petted by them. But, with petting he could become excited, agitated, and bite. What to do? We didn’t want to give up on him. But we wanted volunteers to be safe. And we wanted him to become his best self.
Over the next month, we began to pay close attention to little behaviors about him, little hints as to his mood, his needs. We discovered that you can pet him once...and then have to wait a while before you try it again. We saw that he gave very clear messages as to his mood, through his body language, and through his eyes. He likes being talked to, he likes eye contact. He likes to be played with, really until he gets worn out. He can come out in the lobby now and not get into trouble. Someone cleans his colony room while someone else plays with him. He loves his food. He loves treats. We are making great headway. Recently, another cat got out into the lobby while he was there, and they were about to go at it. We picked up the other cat. And instead of Stash pursuing, attacking, as he probably would have done several weeks ago, he backed away. He almost seemed to choose to calm himself down.
About a month ago, we began giving Stash Fluoxetine (Prozac) and gradually there has been a very marked change in him. He is calmer. He has more impulse control. It gives us the opportunity to watch his changing behavior, gives us the time to make adjustments for him.
Stash is a work in progress. It may take quite a while, but he is going to be an absolutely wonderful cat in the right home, one that understands the darker side he used to have, and believes in him to be his very best self. While we continue to work with Stash, he isn't available for adoption, yet. We hope he will be soon, so if you have an interest in him, please contact Kingdom Animal Shelter.
Stash is a 4 - 5 year old male who came to Kingdom Animal Shelter on February 11, 2019. He had been living with an elderly gentleman who then passed away. And Stash had nowhere to go. People were taking care of him in his home, but there was really little human contact. And so, Stash became a member of the Shelter family.
Kingdom Animal Shelter really tries to go above and beyond what many shelters do for their residents in terms of health care. And health care includes not only physical health, but emotional health, as well. When issues present themselves, even quite serious ones, we do all we can to make them well again. That is what our Chucky Fund, our volunteers, and our vets enable us to do.
Emotional health can be trickier than physical health. There is no blood work, no x-rays to help diagnose emotional difficulties. One cannot get inside the mind of the cat to see what is motivating them to behave in certain ways. If a cat seems depressed, as they sometimes do, we can provide enrichment. And if they really aren’t thriving in the Shelter setting, we find a foster where they can get the space and individual attention they need.
It became apparent over time that Stash was a special case with some serious behavioral issues. He hated being confined in the smaller castles. He got quite riled up in the presence of other cats. So, we moved him to his own special large colony room. Even there, he could get worked up seeing other cats out his window. If he was out in the lobby he would get into fights with other cats under their doors. Volunteers going to pick him up might find him quite a safety challenge to get back into his room.
It also became quite apparent that Stash is an extremely intelligent cat, who gets bored quite easily. He loves to engage with people, get in their laps, be petted by them. But, with petting he could become excited, agitated, and bite. What to do? We didn’t want to give up on him. But we wanted volunteers to be safe. And we wanted him to become his best self.
Over the next month, we began to pay close attention to little behaviors about him, little hints as to his mood, his needs. We discovered that you can pet him once...and then have to wait a while before you try it again. We saw that he gave very clear messages as to his mood, through his body language, and through his eyes. He likes being talked to, he likes eye contact. He likes to be played with, really until he gets worn out. He can come out in the lobby now and not get into trouble. Someone cleans his colony room while someone else plays with him. He loves his food. He loves treats. We are making great headway. Recently, another cat got out into the lobby while he was there, and they were about to go at it. We picked up the other cat. And instead of Stash pursuing, attacking, as he probably would have done several weeks ago, he backed away. He almost seemed to choose to calm himself down.
About a month ago, we began giving Stash Fluoxetine (Prozac) and gradually there has been a very marked change in him. He is calmer. He has more impulse control. It gives us the opportunity to watch his changing behavior, gives us the time to make adjustments for him.
Stash is a work in progress. It may take quite a while, but he is going to be an absolutely wonderful cat in the right home, one that understands the darker side he used to have, and believes in him to be his very best self. While we continue to work with Stash, he isn't available for adoption, yet. We hope he will be soon, so if you have an interest in him, please contact Kingdom Animal Shelter.