Congrats, Ninjie! Crash’s Landing’s New Senior Cat Adoption Program Finds Senior Cat a Home

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - Dec. 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Thanks to a $1,500 grant from Lil’ Bub’s BIG FUND for the ASPCA, 10-year-old Ninjie now has a new, forever home with Laura Kalinowski and her daughter, Vanessa. Ninjie is the first cat to be adopted out through local cat rescue, Crash’s Landing’s, new Senior Cat Adoption Program.

As an incentive for people to adopt senior cats, the grant will fund outgoing comprehensive workups (a $500 value) free of charge for the first three seniors to be adopted out. The comprehensive senior workups include, but are not limited to: Full blood work, dental care, radiographs, urinalysis, vaccinations, and any medication deemed appropriate by a veterinarian.

Ninjie had been at Crash’s since November of 2013 and prior to that, at our sister facility, Big Sid’s Sanctuary, since May 2011. He craved human contact and frequently reached his paws out to visitors. But Ninjie had a few strikes against him that made it difficult for him to be adopted. First, his age: Senior cats (8 years and older) are harder to adopt out because people tend to gravitate to younger cats and kittens. Also, Ninjie had been diagnosed with early stage heart disease (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy), along with feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV), so originally, he was placed in Big Sid’s. Later, he tested negative for FIV and moved from Big Sid’s to Crash’s.

Laura and Vanessa volunteer at Crash’s. They had recently lost a beloved cat to a sudden disease at a young age. As mother and daughter worked, they had the opportunity to spend some quality time getting to know our Crash cats. Laura knew she wanted Ninjie. He had reached out to her several times, and though Laura tried to talk herself out of adopting a cat with heart issues, she kept coming back to him.

Because of his age, Ninjie qualified for a $500 clinic credit to cover a full medical workup under the new Senior Cat Adoption Program prior to leaving for his new home. Because of his heart issues, Dr. Jennifer Petrovich sent him to be checked out by a local kitty cardiologist, and it turned out that Ninjie is perfectly healthy, with no signs of murmurs or cardiac disease.

All cats coming to Crash’s Landing are evaluated, treated for medical conditions and/or injuries, vaccinated, spayed or neutered, and microchipped upon intake. Dental work and other medical treatment is performed on an as-needed basis. Before a cat is adopted out, Dr. Jen Petrovich does a wellness check and provides the cat’s health records to the adopter. The adopter pays for any further testing or workup, so a $500 clinic credit is nothing to sneeze at.

Although the lifespan of a senior cat may be shorter, older cats have lots of love to give and can live past 15 years when they are kept healthy. Crash’s Landing currently has 22 senior cats in residence—20% of the population—and many of them have been there several years.

Seniors should visit the vet every six months (versus once a year for younger cats), and they often require more testing to find and treat geriatric conditions that are still in the early stages. Conditions that are not found early are more expensive to treat.

Thanks to this grant and Laura's open heart and fresh set of eyes, senior cat Ninjie has his own furrever home. There are two more $500 clinic credits available for senior cat adoptions.

Petrovich founded Crash’s Landing in 2002. The shelter is named after the “founding feline,” Crash, a small, broken, black kitten hit by a car in 1999 and left by the roadside to die. Petrovich performed multiple surgeries to save Crash’s life, and he lived happily at the facility until his death in 2013.

To date, Crash’s Landing has rescued over 3,000 cats and adopted out more than 2,700. Sister shelter, Big Sid’s Sanctuary, rescues stray cats that are FIV- and Feline Leukemia- (FeLV) positive. Both rescues share a common mission: To take at-risk, stray cats off the streets of the greater Grand Rapids area, providing them with veterinary care, and housing them in our facilities until dedicated, loving, permanent homes can be found. The organization’s motto is: Saving our little corner of the world… one cat at a time. More info is available at www.crashslanding.org.