Fellow cat-lovers, this is a feel-good story for us. Pearl Jam recently shared a heartwarming holiday update after successfully helping three black and white foster kitties find permanent homes. Discovered in the parking lot of the band’s headquarters, the adoptees, named Bugs, Dark Matter, and Gremmie, were taken in and cared for by the Pearl Jam team. Two of the Pearl Jam kittens, Bugs and Dark Matter, were adopted together, while Gremmie found a furever home with a member of the PJHQ staff.
The Pearl Jam Kittens’ Names and Adoption Agency
With names inspired by PJ songs, Bugs, Dark Matter, and Gremmie reference tracks from the band’s catalog. You can see pictures of the “Purrl Jam kittens” on PJ’s Instagram page.
Made possible with help from the local rescue group Alley Cat Project, the adoption organization worked alongside the band throughout the fostering process. Feel-good stories are even better around the holidays. This one gives fans another reason to celebrate Pearl Jam’s long-standing love for animals and community involvement.
Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images
Eddie Vedder is a known animal lover and has had pets, including rescue dogs and cats. Eddie’s family has even fostered small animals like hedgehogs. Animal rescue events are often attended by Eddie Vedder and his family.
Pearl Jam recently wrapped up its “Dark Matter” tour and is on holiday break. Find out more Pearl Jam news on their official website, pearljam.com
Lastly, to adopt cats in the Metro Detroit area or to donate and help with the care of animals, check out your local shelter or contact the Michigan Humane Society at michiganhumane.org
Donielle Flynn
Donielle Flynn’s rescue cat, Daisy, stretches out on Donielle’s work area. Daisy’s butt is dangerously close to the microphone.
Donielle Flynn has two kids, two cats, two dogs, and a love of all things rock. She’s been in radio decades and held down top-rated day parts at Detroit, Philadelphia, and Washington DC radio stations throughout her tenure. She enjoys writing about rock news, the Detroit community, and she has a series called “The Story Behind” where she researches the history of classic rock songs.
Worried that their cat felt lonely, a couple decided to get a kitten to keep her company, but it didn’t exactly go as they planned.
In a viral TikTok video shared in August by @toothlessandfeather, the tabby tuxedo observes the new black kitten from a short distance away, with nothing but disdain in her eyes. “Thinking our cat was lonely and deciding to get a kitten. She hates him,” reads layover text in the clip.
The poster reassures their followers in the caption: “Jokes jokes. They get along great now. But yeah, Feather misses the days of being the baby of the family.”
While some cats love being only pets and aren’t very open to sharing their space, others thrive in the company of another feline.
But how do you know which one applies to your fur-baby? If your cat needs a companion, they will show signs, according to Pet MD experts.
These signs include excessive clinginess, changes in their eating and sleeping habits, unusually destructive behavior, litter-box issues, and a shift in overall energy.
If you do decide to ultimately get your cat a kitten, ensure that you introduce them the right way. Their introduction needs to be slow and gradual, starting with scent exposure before going on to supervised meetings.
Keep interactions short and positive, letting the older cat set the pace. Provide duplicate resources (litter boxes, beds, food bowls) throughout the home to reduce competition and territorial tension.
It is very important that you don’t force contact and you do allow the cats to approach or retreat as they wish. You can read more about introducing kittens to cats here.
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The video quickly went viral on social media and has so far received over 707,000 views and more than 149,000 likes on the platform.
One user, Jes, commented: “We thought our cat was lonely, so we got another. she barely tolerated her, at best. the second cat was desperate for affection from the first cat and was definitely lonely. so, of course, we had to get a third cat for the second and now they’re best friends.”
Zenna said: “Even hate is enrichment. I swear some of these cats enjoy having beef, but it will probably get better!”
Allison wrote: “She might come around! It took my girl cat a minute but now they lovingly tolerate each other all these years later.”
Newsweek reached out to @toothlessandfeather for comment via email. We could not verify the details of the case.
Do you have funny and adorable videos or pictures of your pet you want to share? Send them to life@newsweek.com with some details about your best friend, and they could appear in our Pet of the Week lineup.
Neonatal kittens. Bottle Babies. Teeny, not yet weaned. However you describe them, whatever you call them, kittens who depend on humans to make it through their first several weeks of life are some of the cutest souls you will encounter and also some of the most vulnerable.
The Neonatal Kitten Nursery, affectionately known as APA!’s Bottle Baby Program, saves some of our tiniest, most vulnerable babies — unweaned kittens. Our facility is typically closed to the public to keep the environment sterile. However once a year we open the doors for our annual Kitten Shower, which offers kittie enthusiasts an opportunity to take an inside look at the program as well as a way to support the important, life-saving work that is done there. And of course, we’ll offer the opportunity to cuddle some kittens!
Our nursery has already seen 1000+ kittens come into our care since January. The peak of kitten season, however, has just begun and will continue through about October. Support is greatly needed for these tiny furballs and the Kitten Shower is a wonderful way to provide it.
This year, the Kitten Shower takes place from 12 pm to 5 pm, Saturday, May 13th at our Tarrytown facility located at 3102 Windsor Rd., Suite D. There are three ways to support this fundraiser: gift a monetary donation, bring an item from the kitten wish list and participate in the silent auction.
Attendees are asked for a $20 entrance fee at the door, which provides items such as a can of kitten formula. The $20 fee covers a full family interested in attending. Another way to gain access to the event is to bring an item from the kitten wish list below:
KMR milk replacement, available at Petco
At least 3.5 lb bag of Royal Canin “Mother and Babycat” dry cat food
12-roll or larger case of paper towels
2 or more 100 oz. unscented laundry detergent
1 box of 800 count or larger fragrance-free baby wipes
6-pack or more of receiving blankets, which can be found at places like Target or Walmart in the baby section
In addition, there will be a silent auction that will include exciting items such as a gift certificate from Austin-favorite, Lick , a Pet Caricature Portrait by Art by HJoy, a ticket to AIA Home Tour 2023 and more. For those supporters who are unable to attend but still want to help the kittens in our nursery, please visit our Neonatal Kitten Nursery wishlist! You can have the items shipped directly to the nursery at 3102 Windsor Rd, Ste. D Austin, TX 78704.
Join us to meet some of the heroes — staff, volunteers and fosters, who give their hearts to ensure that the kittens that come into our care have a chance at life!
It seems Rezz was all but able to relax this year.
The Canadian electronic music superstar recently appeared as a guest on KITTENS’ podcast, “She/Her/They,” to open up about the adversity that came with a grueling touring schedule, among other topics. She’s typically not one to appear on podcasts or do video interviews, let alone speak so intimately about her own personal mental and physical health, touring and finding healthy love.
Rezz begins talking about her struggle with her mental health right before the “Spiral” tour, the biggest and most expensive headlining tour of her career. She said she really struggled with the tour and was reluctant to do it because the music was two years old and didn’t represent her as an artist at the time.
Her reluctance, she added, spiraled into a bad case of insomnia, and she nearly canceled the tour “probably 50 times.” She explained that she constantly worked with her team to figure how to manage the tour and balance her mental health.
She says she then started taking melatonin and Ambien, a potent sleep aid used to treat insomnia in adults. The medication is known for having a number of intense side effects and can cause “rebound insomnia” if you stop taking it, which is what Rezz did because it was making her depressed.
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And that’s when the rebound insomnia kicked into high gear. She says it caused her to not sleep for about six days, and she ended up in the hospital.
“I’ve always been very optimistic and excited and stoked on life,” Rezz told KITTENS. “This is weird. Something has to be bringing me down. It has to be this medication.”
Watch to Rezz’s full interview on the “She/Her/They” podcast below.
Prue Leith has shared an unsettling story from her youth. “The Great British Bake Off” judge wrote about a time she drowned a litter of kittens in her new memoir “I’ll Try Anything Once.”
According to an excerpt published in HuffPost UK and London Broadcasting Co., Leith was 11 years old when her mother instructed her to kill the hours-old kittens.
“My mother and I, then 11, had just drowned some kittens… and for weeks I imagined those poor dead creatures,” the South African restaurateur wrote.
“Too many kittens was a frequent occurrence and there had come a day when my mother, unable to find homes for yet another litter, decided to drown the latest batch.”
Leith wrote in her book that she tried to talk her mom out of it, but the protests were ultimately “met with a firm ‘darling, it has to be done. They are only a few hours old. They will hardly know it’s happening.’”
In a haunting description, Leith noted that the tiny animals “fought like the devil for life.”
“I held the bag under the water until the last kitten had stopped mewing,” she wrote.
Leith explained to HuffPost why she decided to include this story in her new memoir.
“This happened in the early 1940′s, when I was 11 years old, being brought up on a farm in South Africa,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “I wrote about it honestly in my book, as an 11 year old it was an extremely traumatic experience, not one I would forget, however it is what happened 70 years ago.”
She also advocated neutering and spaying pets.
“Thankfully today in the UK we have the choice of neutering our cats and have more options to home kittens, although sadly in some parts of the world it is still an issue.”
Humane Society International stresses the importance of spay and neuter initiatives for stray animals, noting those who are not “are often euthanized, neglected or die of disease.”
“When effectively delivered and combined with vaccinations, spay/neuter provides a humane and effective way to reduce the number of animals living on the streets, and improves the health of those remaining,” the society says on its website. “Sterilizing community dogs and returning them to their territories on the streets allows for a natural reduction in their population over time and leaves the most socialized dogs on the streets.”
The organization also noted that neutered animals are viewed “more favorably” by the general public.
“I adopted my first kitten, now an 8-year-old cat, at a PetSmart adoption event in June 2013.
I was struggling with depression and trying to push my way through grad school and Lancelot has been helping me with his affection from our union.”
“Fast forward a few more years and I once again turned toward kittens as a way to help me with my mental health. In 2018, I was struggling with another depressive spell but this time turned to volunteering with APA!. I started off in the ringworm cattery before figuring out how to volunteer in the neonatal nursery. I really wanted to focus on the nurturing of kittens to mirror self-care.”
For many of us, self-care and mental health came into focus during the Coronavirus Pandemic, and for us Texans, during Winter Storm Uri. When Winter Storm Uri hit Texas in mid-February this year, it leftover four million people out of power and water for days. Temperatures got down to historically low single digits, and there was widespread loss of internet and cell phone reception.
In our work, lives are on the line every day. When disasters like Uri hit, it takes a village to ensure no companions’ lives are lost — no matter the circumstances. Luckily, we have people like Kimberley on our side.
“I was on my second kitten of the year when Winter Storm Uri hit,” said Kimberley. “I had an adorable 7-week old orange kitten named Finn when I lost electricity.
For three days straight he spent the majority of the time in bed with me curled up next to my chest while I was under five blankets. My older cats were on top of the blankets surrounding us. No heating pad or warm gruel during this storm. I was totally iced in.”
“I went to my car a few times in an attempt to charge my phone and had the heat on to try to keep him warmer. Prior to my in-laws taking me and all four felines in where they had electricity, I did fear he was starting to fade on me.”
Neonates, kittens from birth to six weeks of age, are often bottle-fed every few hours and often kept on heating pads during normal temperatures. Caring for Finn during Winter Storm Uri quickly became a life-or-death situation.
To perk him up, Kimberley knew she had to make warm sugar water for him to drink. But with no electricity and no running water, this wasn’t going to be easy. Luckily, Kimberley saved some clean water prior to the boiling order and was able to make the concoction with room temperature water — though room temperature was about 26 degrees.
“It was terrifying trying to keep him warm and not suffocate him as he burrowed up against my chest, sometimes inside my jacket after coming out to eat or use the litter box,” said Kimberley. “He was a trooper though.”
Despite being without power for 48 hours and without water for 72 hours, our shelter remained operational. We mobilized to place 90 percent of our population in foster homes, and our fosters were more vital than ever. Nothing stopped our teams from saving lives and placing pets in forever homes.
“I didn’t even have a halfway charged phone prior to losing power and had spotty signals at best. Yet the adoption team still managed to send me adoption requests, despite the challenges we all faced in Austin. I recall replying to two potential adopters when I had maybe 5 percent battery and trying to set up future Zoom meet and greets.” said Kimberley. “In the end, Finn did go to one of those potential adopters.”
“It was a horrible situation, but I can assure you the off-site volunteers and all of us fosters were doing our best to keep the animals alive and continuing our darndest to further Austin’s goal of No Kill. We did our best to keep the animals alive with what little resources we had without electricity.”
“At this point, I’ve taken in 64 kittens in my four kitten seasons. Of the 21 I’ve had so far this season, 4 have been through the P.A.S.S. program. The majority of my kittens have had ringworm and I do my best to inform people that ringworm is not a reason to reject an otherwise healthy animal. I hope to continue saving kittens and adding joy to other people’s lives with my fosters.”
“I truly consider myself a social worker for both humans and cats.”
Without lifesavers and advocates like Kimberley, APA! companions may have been lost during the winter storm. We need you to join Kimberley to fight for No Kill to stay in Austin so pets like Finn and all of Kimberley’s kitties get the same chances as healthy pets by making a gift today.
With our No Kill future at risk more now than ever before, we need your help TWICE as much to keep Austin No Kill. Give today and double your impact for companions in need.
What’s your Winter Storm Uri story? Interact with our posts on social media TODAY for your last chance to be featured!
Donielle Flynn
