Who Is Mistral Dawn?

Mistral Dawn is a thirty-something gal who has lived on both coasts of the US but somehow never in the middle. She currently resides in the Southeast US with her kitty cats (please spay or neuter! :-)) where she works as a hospital drudge and attends graduate school. Taken By The Huntsman is her first effort at writing fiction and if it is well received she has ideas for several more novels and short-stories in this series. Please feel free to visit her on FaceBook or drop her a line at mistralkdawn@gmail.com

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Alex's (Afobos) Guest Blog About Kitty Haven

Hi Everyone!

I hope you all are having/have had a safe and happy New Year celebration.  I don't know about you, but I'm really excited to see what 2015 will bring! To start it off with a bang, Alex, you may know him under his author name Afobos, is here today with a guest post.  He'd like to speak with you about his charity, Kitty Haven, and we both hope you will keep it in mind when considering which causes to support.  Alex, please tell us all about it! :-)

Alex:

     My friend Michelle started Kitty Haven when I bought my first house back in 2001, so about 13, going on 14, years ago.  It started with feeding a couple of strays, and before we knew it we had over 20 of them in my back yard getting fed every morning and evening.  Needless to say I was buying lots of cat food! Then she started getting organized and I was put in charge of trapping them and taking them to the clinic for spaying and neutering while she paid for everything.  It just escalated from there and we're still busy trying to keep up with all of the new faces that are constantly showing up!
     I trapped most of those cats myself and took them to a local clinic to have them spayed or neutered and then released.  The ones that were adoptable and not afraid of humans we found homes for, or tried to.  A lot of them went back out, but without the ability to reproduce which was a good thing.  They are also vaccinated against rabies and treated for parasites.
     No, Kitty Haven is not a 501c3.  It's simply an effort by a very small group to do what's right and to save some lives.  Most of the money comes out of my friend's pocket and it's always hard trying to find the funds to keep the small operation going.  Vet bills aren't cheap, and caring and feeding a lot of cats isn't cheap either.
     She does what she can and I help when I can and to date I think we have saved a lot of lives and prevented a lot more births to contribute to the problem in the area.  My friend really cares for the cats she helps and she does so purely out of love.  Every donation Kitty Haven gets go straight for the cats and nowhere else.
     The only promotions I do to get funds is mainly online through Twitter and Facebook as well as my website.  As far as myself I write books but I'm also a massage therapist and have been doing massage for the past 20 years.  I work out of my home and do house calls in the Houston Galveston area.  Here's a link to my website where you'll find a link for Kitty Haven with a paypal button for donations:  http://www.freewebs.com/afobos/  
     It's a very rewarding experience helping creatures that can't help themselves, and try to make life a little easier for them.  Homeless cats have it pretty hard and the mortality rate among them is quite high.  
We have come across cases of feline leukemia and numerous other diseases not to mention getting hit by cars and other man made disasters.  It's great to find  a family that's willing to adopt one of these semi wild cats and show the patience and love that they need in order to thrive and flourish.
     There is a great need for donations no matter how small so Kitty Haven can keep it's small effort going to hopefully save more lives and to keep going in its effort to help those that can't help themselves.
     I remember one time finding a very shy and timid little kitty that was badly in need of some care.  It was covered in fleas and parasites and had some really bad skin issues.  She must have belonged to someone at some time in the past because she let me pet her and I had no need to use a trap.  I simply picked her up and took her to the vet.  I kept her in my garage for a few weeks and her improvement was nothing if not miraculous.  Her skin cleared up and she turned out to be a beautiful and very loving and healthy cat that found a great home.
     Not all of the cat stories have a happy ending like that one, but the ones that do make it all worth while.

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