Serenity Place Rescue pg. 1 December, 2013

December 2013

Happy Holidays

To all of our friends & supporters,

Wishing you all a very happy holiday season

and may the new year bring you and your

families and pets good health and prosperity!

It is hard to believe this year is almost over. For

me, the year began with a breast cancer

diagnosis – something I did not expect at all. It

was discovered during a routine mammogram. I

was so shocked and scared when I learned the

news, I can remember feeling faint. Not only

was I afraid of what lie ahead for Terry and I,

but for all the precious orphans that count on

us every day and especially the ones I care for

medically. I did my lumpectomy surgery 1/21

and unfortunately had a reaction to the

antibiotic I was given. I was pretty miserable

for a few weeks with that, but as time went

on, my healing went well. My prognosis was

good and I have had 2 follow up mammograms

and am cancer free for now.

I will definitely be happy to celebrate 1/21/14

with one year cancer-free. Yay! The loving

support of friends and family and of course the

little sweet orphans I care for has meant so

much to me.

Since I have so many goals for Serenity Place

Rescue this upcoming year, which has been my

main motivation to keep positive and keep

going to make sure the many orphans we

rescue go from their "halfway home" to their

"forever home".

We wish to thank all of you for the wonderful

loving help and support that you have given us

during this year. Serenity Place Rescue could

have not continued to achieve the many rescues

that we have successfully accomplished without

your help!

Our usual goal is to save cats of any age, kittens

and some dogs and our special needs

cats/kittens.

But the big news this year is the Katherine St.

Project. A lady who had dedicated her life to

helping cats unfortunately, fell ill. While she

was in hospice, the people that took care of the

cats for her had to drive very far and couldn’t

make it often enough. By the time animal

services was called in, the house was in

deplorable condition. There were 14 cats

inside, a litter of seven kittens and numerous

cats outside and strays she fed. Animal services

allowed Serenity Place Rescue to take the litter

of kittens and three adult cats.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

Pg. 1 Latest News

Pg. 2-5 Events & Thank You’s

Pg. 6 Letters & Success Stories

Pg. 7 Memorial

Pg. 8--10 Waiting for Homes & Adopted Pets

2013

Pg. 11 Wish List

Serenity Place Rescue Where the rescued are halfway home!

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 2 December, 2013

While the owner was in hospice, most of the

cats went to a shelter to be impounded for 30

days pending the outcome of the woman. After

she passed away, we rescued the Katherine St.

cats from the shelter. We adopted out all seven

of the Katherine St. litter and all but two of the

14 adults cats that were rescued.

This sad story is why we encourage anyone

with any pets, especially an elderly one, to

please make provisions for them and include a

monetary donation in case something

unforeseen happens to you. For those of you

who have adopted from Serenity Place Rescue,

please work with us before you give your

animal to another owner or make sure your

next of kin knows to contact Serenity Place

Rescue should anything happen to you.

Most of these cats, kittens and dogs have found

wonderful homes, one kitten did a Friskies

commercial due to come out later this winter.

Even with my health problems, we still

managed to place 65 animals. Many of the

animals were real challenges so I am glad we

were able to get them into their forever homes.

You can view all of our pets available for

adoption on our website at

www.serenityplacerescue.org under

“Adoptions”. You can also go directly to our

PetFinder page at

www.serenityplace.petfinder.com. We show

our adoptable cats and kittens at Petco in

Canoga Park as well as Encino, where they stay

24/7 in the beautiful cat habitat that Petco

donated to us for being Petco partners for ten

years and counting. Petco has really helped us

to get the kitties into some great loving homes.

Events

During the year, we did many Petco Mega

adoption events, including St. Patrick’s Day, a

summer event, a 1950’s theme Halloween

event, the Christmas pet pictures with Santa

and Hanukah pet pictures. We attended the Pet

Expo April 19, 20 and 21 in Orange County. We

also did 2 events with the radio show’s Warren

Eckstein from “The Pet Show” in Tarzana at the

Red Barn, June 22 and November 2.

Terry & Lori and volunteers at the Petco Saint

Patrick’s Day Adoption Event March 9, 2013

at Canoga Park

Lori & Terry at the Petco Halloween Adoption

Event with 1950’s Theme at Canoga Park

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 3 December, 2013

Warren Eckstein holding Oreo at Red Barn

Event in Tarzana

Lori, Terry & Shirley with her hula-hoop at

Red Barn Event in Tarzana

Boogie-Man the cat, Halloween 2013

Terry holding Oreo & Pepper while playing

Santa for pet pictures at Petco

Our main fundraisers continue to be yard sales

where we help raise money for our on-going

veterinary expenses, so please keep us in mind

if you want to donate items for our sales. In

addition, Serenity Place Rescue has partnered

with Pura Vida Bracelets to sell our own

bracelets! Designed with the colors of animals

and blue for life, we receive one dollar for every

bracelet purchased. Order them through our

website or visit puravidabracelets.com and

search for Serenity Place Cat Rescue. Thank you

for your support.

If you would like to help us continue our

mission in helping homeless cats, we would

very much appreciate donations of any kind.

Please take a look at our Holiday Wishlist (see

page 10) or it is also on our website,

www.serenityplacerescue.org which lists all of

the things we need the most to make sure these

little guys get the best shelter and care we can

provide them until they are adopted. Don’t

forget - all donations are tax deductible, and we

will provide you with a receipt. Monetary

donations in particular are essential for us to

continue to provide them with necessary

veterinary care, especially for the felines with

special needs. We also hope that someday we

will raise enough funds to be able to have a

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 4 December, 2013

place for the foster and unadoptable cats (semi-

feral, elderly and special needs) (see wish list).

Thank You

We sincerely appreciate everyone’s help and

would like to extend a special thanks to Dr.

Susan Milder, Dr. Kamran Nassi, and all of their

wonderful staff for their excellent care and

kindness and compassion. We would also like

to extend a big thank you to Target, Luis and

Xiomara for their generous donations of

cat/dog food that we use for our fosters and

also deliver to help animals belonging to

families in need, the homeless, as well as the

churches and food banks that help them. Your

kindness is much appreciated!

Thank you to the Petco Foundation, for

allowing us to be “guests” in their stores for 10

years and for donating the cat habitats which

have helped us place so many orphans in the

years we have been there. Thank you to the

staff of Petco Canoga Park without all of your

help we could not help and maintain so many

kitties with all the love, care and support you

give them. Thank you to Lauren, the grooming

manager, who grooms the kitties when needed

and has also organized the adoption events

with such enthusiasm, making them so

successful. Thank you Mike Rossi, district

manager of the Petco Canoga Park store for

being there when we needed you and having

the faith in all of us to know we will all make

him proud with the events and our decorating.

Thank you to Petco Encino, especially Daniela

who’s positive attitude and support makes

every day and all events successful and fun and

the staff, and Tony who is our “photographer”

and does a superb job at holiday pet pictures.

Thank you Brittaney and Ana, the cats’ second

“moms” along with everyone else who helps

raise funds and to make sure all the animals are

loved and cared for. We cannot thank-you

enough, we feel like you all are our family.

Thank you Scott, the

former manager of Petco

Canoga Park for all his help

and support, who was and

still is so involved in

helping to socialize the

cats and help so many to

be able to get homes. You

are their hero. Scott with Chase

And to our friends and supporters: John

Holman and Mary; Dee and Kathryn Baker;

Glady; John and Lorene Milligan; Todd

Goodman (for your longtime unconditional

friendship, support and legal advice); Jill Ryther

(attorney, for your advice); Karin (for being a

supportive sister); Marty Meyer for all your

help; Jeanne Toma, Cody Lassen and Nitzan

Bobrov for all the great yard sale items and

generous donations; Michael Bell (for your

longtime dedication to the welfare of all

animals and always being there for support);

Shirley (our wonderful hula hooper who is

always ready to hoop and support our efforts)

and all of our friends and family who have

accepted that a life of a rescuer is always hectic

and never easy.

Also Marina Djuric who

is amazing and without

her we would be lost.

She is our tech-savvy

volunteer who

maintains our website,

and does whatever else

we need done.

Marina with Boomer

(Adopted from SPR)

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 5 December, 2013

To Lahari, Anitha and Kankar for volunteering

your time to feed and clean at Canoga Park

Petco twice a week and for giving Ray & Hope

their dream home! Also thank you for the help

with the video for the Petco contest.

Thank you Ellen & Chad for allowing us to have

yard sales at your house and for doing the

newsletter. Last but certainly not least, Paula

and her husband of R & R Printers in

Chatsworth (who have helped us with all our

printing needs and whom we highly

recommend), we truly appreciate your

kindness! And to anyone we may have

forgotten to mention, please forgive us and

know that we are so grateful to you as well!

Also we would like to thank all of you who

adopted pets from us, and gave them loving

homes. It does our hearts well to know they

are loved and happy. We look forward to

hearing from you and seeing pictures you might

have of your furry children! Every animal we

adopt out is always in our hearts and never

forgotten, and we know that they continue to

receive the same love after they find their

“forever home”. We at Serenity Place will

always be there for you if you can no longer

take care of them, need to return them, need

help financially when possible, need advice, or

if you want a new addition to the family!

Once again, we sincerely appreciate everyone’s

help and generosity this year. It has helped us

save so many lives, and we will definitely keep

you updated on what is going on with us and

the events that we do so that more people can

get involved to help save so many more lives of

innocent little animals who have done nothing

but give us unconditional love and everlasting

companionship.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Best Wishes,

Lori Kaelker and Terry Ross

Serenity Place Rescue

Lori & Terry

&

Oreo & Pepper

(Waiting for their

forever home)

C O N T A C T U S Phone

(818) 999-4022 or (818) 348-4865

E-mail

lori@serenityplacerescue.org or

trlk@pacbell.net

Website

www.SerenityPlaceRescue.org

Petfinder

serenityplace.petfinder.com

Facebook

Serenity Place Rescue

Correspondence

6520 Platt Ave# 455

West Hills CA 91307-3218

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 6 December, 2013

Letters & Success Stories

Ray & Hope

You may remember Ray & Hope, the kittens born without eyelids. While they are without sight, they are very happy in their home with their wonderful family.

Ray & Hope were featured in a video entry for a contest with Petco and Ellen DeGeneres. While Serenity Place Rescue was not among the winners of the 4,500 rescue entries, the video shows their sad start and ends with their great new life.

You can view this video at http://www.youtube.com/edit?video_id=_xOmWo_gt2M&video_referrer=watch or on www.youtube.com search for Ray & Hope Serenity Place Rescue.

Peewee

Peewee was also featured in last year’s newsletter. He was underdeveloped and was emaciated at 6 ounces. Peewee has grown and although he has neurological problems, he is such a sweet boy.

Letters

Hi Lori,

I don't know if you remember me and my husband

Doug, but we adopted a cat from you one year ago

today. His name is Billy, and he's a black and

white "cow cat" with one green eye and one blue.

I just wanted to let you know he's had a wonderful

first year with us! He is such a great cat - everyone

loves him, even people who aren't crazy about

cats. He's just so easy going and friendly. He's also

the smartest cat I've ever known. He will sit down

for treats, and we just taught him a new trick -

standing up on his hind legs to get a treat!

We're absolutely crazy about him, and we're so

glad he joined our family a year ago. He's happy to

be here too, and he loves cuddling with us on the

couch.

Thanks for all the work

you do, and for rescuing

Billy so that we could

adopt him!

Cheers,

Katie

Henry

Henry was adopted in 2008 (left) and now in 2013.

Here is the latest picture of Henry. He’s part of our

family and loves to snuggle. He even uses a pillow

like a human. We love him!

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 7 December, 2013

Letters Continued

December 1, 2013

Lori,

Eddie has made huge strides.

The first is that he has made our bed his bed every

night, curled up all warm with us. Secondly, he

hangs in the den with the dogs when we are in

there and roams the entire house as he pleases. The

dogs pay no attention to him, but yesterday I was

cracking up when one of them came too close to

sniff him and I turned around just in time to see

him all hunched up and

running sideways chasing

the dog! The dog ran to me

for comfort, the cat strolled

away and went about his

business. Just I suspected,

he already rules the house,

just like our previous kitty.

- Tracey Goodman Eddie

Memorial

We wanted to take a moment to remember

some wonderful people and animals that have

passed away 2013. Desiree (aka Vespa) a very

special needs cat passed away along with Tim,

who had the same affliction as Desiree. Misty,

Jarrod, Guinevere and Bugsey the Dog also

passed away. To Elaine & Jeff, we are so sorry

for the passing of Jasper. From the Katherine St.

house, Orphan Andy passed away from cancer

shortly after his rescue. We will miss Donald

Nelson, someone we had the privilege of pet

sitting for, a true gentleman, who loved and

adored his cat Inga. Sheryl Green a dedicated

fellow rescuer and advocator. You both are

missed.

Desiree Misty

(aka Vespa)

Jarrod

Guinevere Bugsey

(Shadow’s litter)

Donald Nelson

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 8 December, 2013

Adopted Pets 2013

The Katherine St. Litter

Monkey, Tyger, Sweets,

Miss Kitty & Charlie

&

Fiona (the star of a

Friskies commercial)

Other Katherine St.

House Cats Adopted

Lacey

Shadow & her Litter

Shadow

Oliver Lelia

Hartel Litter

Cozy

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 9 December, 2013

More 2013 Adoptions

Maggie Eddie

(Formerly Molly)

Hobbs Bugsey

Kai (Formerly Frisco)

James

Nana

Lulu (Formerly Ms. Meows)

Dixon

Wellington (formerly Dexter Pierre)

Serenity Place Rescue pg. 10 December, 2013

Wish List

1. Cat food

a. Iams original adult cat dry (orange bag), any size b. Iams kitten dry (purple bag), any size c. Nutromax adult cat food, roasted chicken flavor d. Nutromax kitten food, dry, any size e. Wet (canned) food: Any by Iams, Nutromax, Friskies

2. Food/Water Bowls ceramic or stoneware, 8‐9 inches

3. Litter

a.Prefer Fresh Step Crystals or Swheat Scoop( wheat Liter), but any clay or gravel litter will do (no clumping sand type, please), any size b. Litter boxes, any size, with or without covers c. Litter scoopers, any type

4. Beds and flat pads for sleeping

5. Scratching posts

6. Cat toys

7. Cat collars with breakaway safety feature, assorted colors for both males & females

8. Advantage or Frontline flea prevention

for kittens and adults, 3 or 6 pack 9. Knox Gelatin 3‐48 package (for bottle fed

kittens) 10. Canned Goat Milk any size (for bottle

fed kittens) 11. Gift cards Petco, Petsmart, Home Depot,

Walmart, CostCo, Target, Ralphs, Arco & Shell gas cards

A few other ideas and “wishes”… 1. Monetary donation – of any amount to

help with all of the expenses we incur while taking care of all the orphans at our "halfway home" (can donate via personal check or website via pay pal)

2. Office equipment ‐ computer, monitor, keyboard, copy machine, 2‐cordless phones

3. Folding tables ‐ plastic coated, 4’ & 6’ foot (for adoption events and yard sales)

4. Hand held vacuum ‐ any kind (Dust Buster, etc.)

5. Donated truck, van, or SUV (for transporting our animals to veterinary appointments, adoption events, delivering adopted pets to their new homes, picking up donated items for our yard sales, etc.)

6. Store front for a thrift store ‐ with partial rent deducted for a tax write off

7. Land – donated for a shelter 8. Mobile home or a 2-3 bedroom home –

donated to be used as a office/shelter for our orphans

9. Eye medicine – donated by eye physicians 10. Printing services – donated or

discounted printing services for mailings 11. Other services Any person or company

in the following field that can donate services: Veterinary, grooming, printing, etc.