Love at First Sight

"16 days ago, I walked past the FARS PetSmart adoption center in Cambridge and saw a beautiful calico cat named Penelope. She stretched her paw up to the window, yawned, and looked at me through the glass and I knew she was perfect! Two days later I brought Penelope home. All of you were so caring and helpful during the adoption process and I could just tell the amount of dedication you have for these cats, and I know that you took such amazing care of Penelope because she is just so happy healthy and friendly. Penelope came home and bonded very quickly with my other cat, Peanut, and now they play and cuddle together...they are both very happy. Again, I would like to thank you all for taking such good care of Penelope and all the other cats at FARS."

- Penelope's mom

Good Friends Worth Waiting For

Fitzie was adopted on September 15. He stayed with us at the shelter longer than you would expect a cute 6-month-old to because he had a persistent eye infection. He's healthy now and as you can see from the note below the wait for a new home was worth the wait.

"Fitzie is doing very well and he and Mouse (the adopter's other cat) are now the best of friends! We slowly introduced them to each other, and at first, it was a little rough. Mouse would hiss at Fitzie a lot, but Fitzie would pay him no attention. After a while it got better, and now they are great together! They love having fun playing and getting into occasional (well more towards frequent) trouble. Thanks again for everything and Fitzie thanks you as well!"

Story Telling

TechSoup recently launched a "Digital Storytelling" contest. They challenged nonprofits to tell a story about their mission in 5 photos.

Check out our entry

Photo Caption Contest

Especially for Pets has invited Feline Adoption & Rescue Society to participate in their "adoption initiative." We will be at area stores this fall talking to people about our mission. Here's where we'll be:

444 Great Road, Acton, October 4
1185 Chestnut Street, Newton Upper Falls, October 11
44 Main Street, Wayland, October 18
153 Turnpike Road (Route 9), Westborough, November 21
424 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, December 5
95 Washington Street, Canton, December 6
67 Main Street, Medway, December 17

To make it even more interesting, we kicked of a Photo Caption Contest. We're asking people to give us a donation and create a caption for one of these three photos. Our favorite caption will win the grand prize of a $50 Especially for Pets gift certificate.



Photo 1


















Photo 2



















Photo 3

Best Friends

Last January we got a call to help a family that had 27 cats in a 2 bedroom apartment. They were all very friendly cats and we eventually found homes for all of them. Two of them, Pinky Doodle and Mojo went to a new home together where they made new friends. Here's a video of Mojo and his new friend Taaja.

Harry Has a Home

"Harry" is a black kitten we adopted from the Framingham PetSmart about 1 1/2 months ago. His new name is Wesley and he is 4 months old now. We adopted him under the knowledge that he was not extremely social, that he would take some time and positive reinforcement to come around to us. But by the end of the first day we had him he was curled up with us purring and enjoying a movie. He is doing fine with strangers as well. He is one crazy cat. I know kittens like to play and run around, but he takes it to the next level. He is quite the athlete with the jumps he makes. He gets bigger and bigger everyday and we can't wait to see the handsome cat he grows up to be. Thank you for bringing the little gentlemen into our lives :)

Finally, a forever home

Bootsie has had a particularly hard time. We first met Bootsie last January when we took in 27 cats from a home in Worcester. Everyone, including Bootsie found new homes. Unfortunately, Bootsie wanted more attention than his new home could provide so he came back to us. Then he found a third home but had to come back to us again when his new family had a personal emergency and had to move on short notice.

Finally, he's home with a new family where he can stay for good. Here's what they have to say about him.

"We adopted Bootsie two days ago and boy has he made himself at home. We brought him home in the middle of a thunder and lightning storm and I was worried that maybe the noise plus the stress of being in a new environment would really freak him out. It was recommended that he stay in one room for the first night but he managed to make his rounds throughout the whole house. He hid after about a half hour of looking around. He stayed hidden for the rest of the night and into the morning. By that afternoon, he was out and making his presence known.

He is a big talker. I assumed that, being an older cat, he would not want to play with many cat toys. I was wrong. He is very playful. So far, his favorite thing to play with is a small rope cord that came from an old pair of sweatpants. He bats at it and takes it into his mouth and drags it around the house. It is so cute. His favorite spot seems to be in the front windows. He lays there for a while and watches the kids and people walk by. He jumps up there especially when he hears the sound of dog tags rattling as they walk by.

One of the things noted on his profile at the pet store was that he liked a lot of attention. That is spot on. He is always meowing and "talking" to us. He jumps up onto the couch and cuddles with us and also jumps into the bed with us to sleep. He really loves to be pet and scratched under his chin. I have learned a lot about him in just the past two days. Can't wait to see what else he may have in store. I have attached a pic of him in one of our front windows. I had to move the picture frames on the window sill for him.

He has also started to get used to the kids. They are really going slow with him. He rubs up against their legs and they bend down and pat him. They also play with him with the rope cord and feather toy we bought."