The Tizzie
Bazalcat Shelter
for
Homeless Cats
Athabasca,
AB, Canada
Run by Trish & Charles Bazalgette
IMPORTANT
NOTICE
We regret that we have been full for some years and we still have 45
cats looking for homes.
For this reason we are sorry, but we cannot accept any further applications
to take in cats
Cats Available for adoption
The Adoption Process
Importance of Premium Quality Cat Food
Cats and the community
Our Shelter is a privately-run, not-for-profit project.
Our Secondary Objective
is to provide a safe haven for the stray, homeless and injured cats of
Athabasca and its immediate area, to give them the care they need and to find
new homes for them.
We started
rescuing cats late in 2002 when we took in a little torbie named Mouse whose
owner had moved away and abandoned her. Since that time we have taken in over
two hundred stray and abandoned cats, some of whom were actually rescued by the
Second Chance Animal Rescue Society and sheltered by us. Although we operate
independently of SCARS, we work with them to promote proper stewardship of
companion animals.
Proper Stewardship?
We strongly
encourage owners to spay or neuter their
cats. Considering the number of unwanted cats that are destroyed or left to
fend for themselves, even in Athabasca, it is downright unethical for anyone to
let their female cat be a kitten factory, or to allow their male to roam and
reproduce at will.
We
receive three to ten calls per week from people who have unwanted cats, either
strays or pets that they are unable to keep. Because of space limitations, and the fact that we do not
euthanize unhomed cats, we cannot take in every cat that is brought to our
attention. We do keep a waiting list and have occasionally been able to find
homes for cats before they even come into the Shelter.
2. The First Step to Recovery
When a cat is
surrendered to the Shelter, it is first housed in an isolation room so we can
assess its health and temperament.
The cat is promptly taken to the vet for a physical exam, vaccinations,
Feline Leukemia and FIV tests and, if it is old enough, spay or neuter. If the cat requires further medical
attention, it receives that too.
3. Life in the Shelter
Although each cat has a personal kennel for mealtimes, with a private litterbox, they spend most of their time loose in our ‘cat room’, where they have a good selection of toys, scratchy posts and cozy beds. We give each cat special one-on-one attention every day, and small kittens get well handled to prepare them for their roles as active family members. All of our cats get two meals a day.
To maintain optimum health, we only feed our cats premium
quality cat food.
4. A New Home
Like other
rescue shelters, we have an adoption application and contract. The application process allows us to
become familiar with potential new owners so that we can match them up with the
best possible cat. Once a kitty
has gone to its new home, we encourage the owner to stay in contact with us so
we know that the transition period is going smoothly. We love to hear the stories of how the kitties are settling
in and taking over, and to get photos of them in their new surroundings.
Thinking of Acquiring a Cat?
Please Adopt a Rescue!
If
you were to take a kitten from someone whose cat had just had a litter, you would
make it easy for the cat owner to postpone spaying their cat. Why should they
spay when the kittens are easy to home?
Please do not encourage such negligence by accepting their kittens. If you have space in your life for a
cat, please adopt a rescued cat.
All
of our cats have been rescued because their lives were in danger. Some were strays that would otherwise
have been abandoned or destroyed.
Others were found sick or injured and in need of veterinary attention that
no one else would pay for. If we
do accept kittens from someone whose cat has been allowed to breed, we require
the owner to provide us with a spay certificate for the mother cat.
When you adopt from us, it makes
space available so we can rescue
another cat.
-
All of our cats have been to the vet for physical examinations, vaccinations,
spay/neuter and Feline Leukemia and FIV tests. None of our cats go up for adoption until were are confident
that they are free of disease and parasites and are in good health.
-
We promise that if you find yourself unable or unwilling to keep your adopted
cat, we will welcome it back to the Shelter. We will honour this promise any time in its life, for any
reason.
We
dig deep into our pockets. Really deep.
Athabasca Veterinary Services has been absolutely wonderful about
helping out with the vet bills, and SCARS has donated quite a lot of
much-needed cat food. We
also accept donated second-hand books, which are sold at Old Crow Antiques with
the proceeds going to the Shelter.
Otherwise we receive no funding whatsoever, and are obliged to charge
adoption fees. For a
spayed/neutered, vaccinated, health-checked adult we ask $120.00, or $180.00
for a pair. This is prorated for
kittens who are too young for us to fix, or who still need boosters.
Books for Cats
(Please Support Feline Literacy)
Books
and cats go hand in hand. Any
discerning cat will agree. In Old Crow
Antiques and Framing in Athabasca you will find a shelf
full of good quality second hand books for sale. These are sold on behalf of
the Shelter, and all the proceeds are used to support the homeless cats. They
are also sold online via the Biblio
website. Access to our
Biblio webpage and to our online stock is
via http://www.biblio.com/bookstores/chasbaz.html
Please
consider donating those portions of your personal library which are no longer
of use to you, or stop in to see what might round off your collection.
If your kitty
goes missing, please call and let us know. We hear of lots of strays and would love to reunite them
with their owners. Similarly
if you encounter a stray, let us know even if you plan to take it in or home it
yourself. Chances are his owner
has notified us that they are missing their kitty.
What’s in a Name?
Because of our
unusual surname (Charles’ fault) our own animals have whimsically been surnamed
‘Bazalcat’, ‘Bazaldog’ etc.
Tizzie (short for Theresa
Philo, a name prevalent in the Bazalgette family history) was our own
beautiful, wilfull torbie cat, who was of more than sufficient character to be
dubbed Our Patron, although really she didn’t
much like other cats and couldn’t have been bothered about their welfare.
The Tizzie Bazalcat Shelter for Homeless
Cats
Run by Trish & Charles Bazalgette
Athabasca,
Alberta
T9S 2A5
(during
regular business hours)
Fax:
780 675 3699
Email: xtizziebaz@telus.net
(remove
‘x’ before mailing – sorry, this is to reduce spam)