CH Kittens Update

Iris & Allie, our CH kittens, are doing great in their forever home. Thank you for the update 󾬑󾬖󾬓

Posted by Joa's Arc on Thursday, March 24, 2016

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Update on Roary

Look it's ROARY stopping in to say hello. He is doing great! His mom reports he is feisty and oh so handsome. XOXO

Posted by Joa's Arc on Friday, March 20, 2015

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Update on Goblin

Who remember sweet Goblin aka Gobby Goo? One year ago today his dreams came true, he was adopted by an amazing couple Donnie and Mandie!Happy Gotcha Day Goblin!

Posted by Joa's Arc on Monday, February 23, 2015

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Eye Spy Ebby and Eve

Ebby and Eve were rescued by Joa's Arc and adopted out through another group - something we do sometimes if it'll help the other group and/or get an appropriate adoption faster than just being in foster care with us.

These sisters were born with eye defects, Eve having no eyes at all since she was a little kitten...

 

Their mom wrote in her update: Blind kitties act and play much like any other. No one ever notices Eve is blind-she goes up and down steps, finds the litter box and food, jumps and finds things to play with, etc. Having a special needs cat has opened up our children's eyes to a beautiful understanding of life with animals and people. Building patience and trust is the key to a happy life with your pet.

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Alexa Update

happy tail here for Alexa!

Her mom writes: Alexa was rescued from a hoarding situation and subsequently had to undergo surgery to remove her eye. When she first came to live with us she was scared and shy. She spent a few weeks hiding behind our washing machine... Gradually she began to come out to explore, but had no trust in people. With a lot of love (and food) she has become the cat that she is today.

Fast forward 3 years, Alexa is outgoing, happy and has no fear of anything. She loves attention and will gladly snuggle up with anyone who will let her. Her biggest fear now is that someone will forget to feed her…although that is probably not possible as she has become quite the talker. Having only one eye does not slow her down either. Alexa is the best spricket (spider-cricket)/rogue mouse killer in the land. She is always leaving us presents around the house.

  

She has really blossomed into a sweet and loving princess (although if you ask her she thinks she’s the queen).

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Hello from Chanel and Mia

 

Mia is the sweetest dog! She loves everyone and is always by my side. She loves to go for car rides and long walks. I couldn't ask for a nicer dog.

Chanel thinks she is a dog! She follows us from room to room and is quite vocal. She plays fetch - Chanel will actually brings the toys back and waits for you to throw it! She is a big part of our family ...

 

and they are both very loved!
Thank you, Joa's Arc!

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Winston the Winner

We've had Winston, (we call him Winnie, Win and many other silly little cat names) - a CH kitty - now for about six months. Adopting him was one of the best decisions I've ever made.

He is our first special needs adoption and I was nervous at first wanting to make sure I would be able to care for him in the best way possible. Now, I'm just so happy he is a part of our family. He makes us smile every time we look at him and by the amount that he purrs everyday he seems to be very happy himself.

Winston is doing a bit better with his walking, especially on the hardwood floors since I trimmed the long fur growing out from between his toes. It was cute, but had to be done and now he's not "ice skating" across the kitchen floor.

He gets along great with his brothers, especially with our older Siamese, Bob, who loves to snuggle with him at night. I think his favorite things to do are to sit in front of the screen doors and watch the birds outside, lounging in his tube and playing with his feather toy. He is finally learning to meow, mostly in the morning when he hears me get up to get their wet food ready, which he devours!

Although they may seem small, his greatest milestones are grooming "'down below", playing with cat toys, meowing and starting to stand a little in his litter box. We are so proud of him!

*Winston is only outside under close supervision

We are very thankful for Joa's Arc for bringing Winnie into our lives, we can't thank you enough!

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Jozee Update

While looking for one lost dog, Jen W's family was called to come ID a possible match. It wasn't her, but it was a homeless dog in need who had been hit by a car and was shelter bound... so she came home with them. Attempts were made to find her family, but Josie was never claimed and after several months found a new forever home.

From Jozee's family: Here are a few pictures of our Jozee (formerly Josie) girl!

She is​ doing wonderful here! She is full of endless amounts of crazy energy! She loves to play with all of her toys, us, her uncle Radar (my in-laws dog), and pretty much anyone else that will let her. She loves to go for walks, and we even took her on a hike recently and she was so good! We can't wait to get her out on more of those, and we are even hoping to get her out camping in the near future. And of course she just loves love, and won't let you stop giving it to her if she has the chance (she will literally shove her head under your hand for petting if she can find it!).

We are always toying with getting her another brother or sister to play with all day long, though sometimes she is such a spoiled princess we aren't sure if she really wants one!

We can't believe that we are coming up on two years since we brought her home. She brightens our day every time we walk in the door.

 

 

We are so thankful that she found her way to your family and Joa's Arc so that we could give her a fur-ever home.

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Update on Roary

10/3/2014 - Hi Joa's Arc family!

It's your pal Roary here stopping by to say hello! Tomorrow will make FOUR WEEKS since I've been living at my new furever home! None of us can believe that in only a couple of days (October 6th), we'll be celebrating the one month anniversary since we've all been together!

As you can see, I am very comfortable in my new home and have no trouble finding my way around, counter tops included! In fact, counter cruising is now one of my favorite activities. My mom and gramma tell me it's a good thing I'm so cute and such a purry love bug, because I can also be quite a handful too! Besides counter cruising, I also love to get on top of the swinging trash can lid and teeter totter back and forth! Since I am denied access to the bathroom and my favorite toy (toilet paper); I just love going around and pulling tissues out of all the tissue boxes throughout the house! My brother Ethan and I have the most excellent adventures; and I am definitely the ring leader of whatever mischief we get into!

 

Mom still keeps us in a separate bedroom at night because we can't be trusted (hehehe); but we get her back as soon as gramma lets us out in the morning by running across the hallway and waking mom up by biting her toes! Again, being cute really helps us get away with anything we want!

I'd like to send a special shout out to Mumma Joyce, my pal Nitra, and all the other nice people at Joa's Arc who gave me the chance at having such a wonderful life!

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Update on Flea

Happy 5 years today and to celebrate ... here's Flea!!!!!!!!!!

It's hard to believe how far our little Flea has come, but here he is now...

 

His mom wrote us saying: Hey there, I'm Dara, Flea's forever Mom.

Flea was rescued by Joa's Arc about 3 years ago and found to have neurological damage from flea medication poisoning. He was a tiny spunky little kitten who used to perch up on my shoulder, but he's grown into a totally awesome cat with attitude! He has no lasting neurological damage as far as I can tell. He's smart as a whip - comes when I call his name, sits, lays and gives a paw. He's my sweet baby boy and I can't imagine my life without him.

The last few years have been incredibly rough but Flea is always there for me to hang out or cuddle which usually includes dragging a box up onto my bed to sleep in. He's totally fearless. He loves yelling at the birds every morning and chasing desert lizards when we're out for walks. He even yowled back at a black bear in the Rocky Mountains when it came to close to our car. He's crazy about Temptation treats and loves visiting my Grammy Gabbers because she will feed him every can of tuna in the house. We'll be traveling for a while more, but we're hoping to adopt a sister kitty for Flea once we come home to stay. We'll be definitely be adopting from Joa's again!

Keep on living the good life, Flea! And we'll find you a special "sister" when the time's right ;)

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Have You Adopted From Joa's Arc?

Have you adopted from Joa's Arc? If you find the time this month, please shoot an email with an update and photo of your Joa's Arc alum to Jen W of Joa's Arc - she's working on something special for October!

Post by Joa's Arc.

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Cordi is 2

Happy Birthday, Cordi!

Post by Joa's Arc.

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Great Attitude

Joa's Arc alum, Churchill, shared this excellent motto with us and we had to share it with you...

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Happy Update on Maizey

Joyce M of Joa's Arc recently got an email updating us on a kitty, Maizey, adopted out at the end of 2011. Here is the wonderful update:

Hi Joyce,

I think of you and Joa's Arc often and wanted to send you an update on our Maizey who we adopted from you in December of 2011. In short, she is fantastic!

The first few months we had her, she really struggled in the litterbox. A fierce case of giardia that gave her loose stool for months and constantly falling in it, lead to frequent bathing — which as I'm sure you can imagine, she hated! (So did we!) She also wasn't really that keen on being held or loved on. We kind of forced our love on her and she would put up with it, kind of huffing her way through it like an embarrassed teenager. (Which was kind of adorable.)

She is an entirely different cat these days. We finally found the right combination of daily probiotics and a custom-made litterbox so that now she maybe gets one or two baths a year! And she has simple blossomed in terms of affection. She's got a great purr and will let you cuddle her right up (for a little while anyway). She loved to be carried looking over my shoulder so she can see the world from a fresh perspective. She is constantly playing with her younger sister, Gina (a mild CH foster who was a very sick kitty and who decided she was home with us). We've been fostering special needs cats since we moved to north Jersey and she is great with all of them. In short, we ADORE HER, can't imagine our lives without her, and love that all of our family and friends now know about CH and the joys of adopting special needs. Here are a few recent pictures of Maizey herself!

When we adopted her, I was working on a play that was set in Zimbabwe, and I was working very closely with our language and cultural consultant. I had been telling her about preparing to bring Maizey home and I asked her if she could help us a choose a strong, positive middle name for her in her language, Shona. She suggested "Zvikomborero" which means "you are a blessing to us." And our Maizey Zvikomborero is a blessing to us every day!

It is also because of you and because of welcoming Maizey into our family that we began fostering. We've fostered and placed 7 CH and/or visually or mobility impaired cats since November of 2012, and done short term fostering or transit of many others.

So THANK YOU for giving our Maizey such a good start in life, and thank you for the wonderful work that Joa's Arc continues to do!

Kaitlin

Thank you to Maizey's family for taking her in, loving her and being inspired to help special animals like her. It is emails like this that make our hearts swell and reminds us that every effort we do for special needs animals is so worth it!

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Happy Birthday Pip

Happy 1st birhtday, Pip!

Pip (pictured in his mom's lap) celebrated his birthday at the end of March with his doggy cousin, some pet-safe birthday cake and presents too!

Pip was a puppy, just 6 weeks old, when he was brought to a vet to be put to sleep because of his genetically-defected eyes. Thankfully, Pip found his way to Joa's Arc though... and then Pip really hit the jack pot when he was adopted by a wonderful forever family.

Happy birthday, bud, and here's to many more!

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A check up for Cordi

I don't think it gets much better than this - a pup who wouldn't have seen 2013 without life-saving surgery (which Joa's Arc supporters made happen thanks to your donations) starting 2014 off right with a thumbs up from her cardio specialist, Dr Miller, who she visited tonight with her forever family! Yay, Cordi!!

On the report Dr. Miller wrote "I originally diagnosed Cordi's problem when she was two months old and we are so pleased that she had palliative surgery and is doing well; it was great to see her again and hope for a long, good quality life."

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Hooray!

Daphne's mom started her own pit bull rescue! Yup, she's gone from networking to rescuing: Bella-Reed Pit Bull Rescue

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Adopted

Daphne has been adopted! She went home during the STAF Dog Walk event. Her mom is excited to have such a sweet little girl to love up, train (get her CGC!) and take around to be one awesome example of a bully.

"I would officially like to welcome Daphne to the BRPBR family!!! ~ Melissa"

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Happy Announcement Anniversary!

3 years ago today, we announced the forming of Joa’s Arc and our mission to help special needs animals right here through this blog.

As you may or may not know, Joa’s Arc today is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation, receives no government or public funding, and relies entirely on donations from the public to carry out our mission to assist special needs animals.

Joa’s Arc has no paid staff and plenty of animals in our care...

Like Tiffany who started out life in a home with about 200 other cats and very little attention, let alone affection. Because of this, Tiffany is extremely shy and needs a home with someone who will allow her to be herself and come around on her own terms. Sweet, silly Riley came into a local shelter with a leg wound. The wound has healed and now he's all purrs, energy and tail-wags for attention waiting for a home of his own. Oh, and adorable Fox. Who could resist this boy!? We're not sure and yet, he's still in need of an adopter.

Not to mention, Joa’s Arc has also been able to help place several animals directly from shelters into homes, Joa’s Arc has gotten other animals from local shelters into no-kill shelters or rescues when we haven't had the space ourselves and our girl Daphne is being adopted this weekend. She is a little pit puppy who was tossed from a car and had sustained a leg injury. She needed the care of an ortho specialist and Joa’s Arc got that for her.

Do you have some free time?
Can you make some free time?
We need your help!

We could use more fosters, volunteers (especially a Grant Writer) and someone willing to create a website for us.

Fostering is easy - just open your home to a furry friend. You can pick what kind of special need you have experience or interest in helping and some are as simple as socializing or recovering from surgery. You provide the food, water & love ... and let everyone know you have an extra-special animal up for adoption to help try to find that munchkin a home.

Volunteers are needed from everything to help with the animals, get updated photos, sit at events or share information about our group to get the word out there to help Joa’s Arc and the special needs animals in our care.

A grant writer would help us extremely right now by finding us the funds to continue to care for the animals that would usually be put to sleep in shelters before even being considered for adoption.

Although we have a blog, a website would be a huge help as well - somewhere people can find information on the animals we have available for adoption, easy access to a link to donate, how to care for them if they adopt or are interested in fostering, a list of resources of other groups that help special needs animals, etc.

We've been doing great work, we plan to continue to do great work for the special needs animals and your assistance means we can reach our hands out further. There is something that everyone can do! Just ask (or offer) :)

Finally, in case we don't say it enough - thank you!

A tea cup poodle with a broken leg (Cup of Joe) or a pit bull puppy with a fractured elbow (Daphne),
neurological cat (Nero) or a kitten with a birth defect (Nennee),
victim of cruelty (Valentine) or shut down from fear at the shelter (Beanie),

Joa’s Arc is willing to pay to help these beautiful little lives.

We have been able to do so much for so many animals ... and none of it would have been possible without your support. So, truly, thank you so very much for your kind words, donations, adoptions and unending support.

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An Update From Alexa

Guess what we got in our inbox today? A wonderful email from Alexa's mom, Kelly, and a few words from Alexa herself! Here's what she had to say:

Hi,

It’s Alexa – I just wanted to let you know how I am doing. Life is great! After spending a few days hiding (I was pretty scared) I found out just how fun life can be. There are so many neat places to explore and fun things to play with. My favorite toys are my catnip mouse which I can throw into the air and catch again (although sometimes I throw it too high and it gets stuck on a high shelf and someone has to get it for me) and my laser pointer. I follow that little red dot all over the house. My new parents have found that the pointer is especially useful when I sit in front of the tv and swat at the screen to play with the people in there. Oh! I almost forgot about my newly discovered built in toy – my tail! That is so much fun, but I just can’t seem to catch it - I’m still working on that one. I have also found my voice and I am not afraid to use it. I learned that when I yell (which I am doing a lot of nowadays) someone will sit down and give me attention! How nice it is to be spoiled.

I am very adventurous now. I love to explore and find new places to sit. My new favorite place is the top of the door. As you can see only having one eye is not making any difference to me at all – I can still do everything that any other cat can do! It is pictures like this one that prompted my nickname “headlight”.

I have discovered just how comfortable life can be. I have a bed to sleep in, but lately I prefer to sleep in bed with my parents and the dog. Although I am not a big fan of the dog (she’s always trying to play with me and lick me – yuck!), she is very warm at night so sometimes I curl up next to her and purr. I am also becoming a very good lap cat. If you sit down, you better have your lap ready because I’m coming too!

I just wanted to let you know that I am doing great! I may have had a rough start, but I am definitely making up for lost time now. Thanks for saving my life and taking care of me – now I get to enjoy it! See the windows behind me? They keep telling me that the birds are coming soon so I am keeping watch.

Now if I could just find a way to get them...

Love,
Alexa

We love you too, Alexa, and we're so happy for you and your family.

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