Kitties in the Can

These little darlings have been with me for ten days now. They're six weeks old and what a treat they are to have in my life.

I'm a kitten foster mom for Theresa Foley's non-profit spay-neuter rescue organizations: The Key West Cat Society and the Venice Cat Coalition.

Join our Facebook page: the Sarasota Kitten Club to be in the conversation all revolving around saving cats and kittens in Florida (and simply loving them). Buy a T-shirt (my art is on the T-shirt), send a donation, send love. It all goes to help the cats who love us back unconditionally and add countless moments of joy to my life.

If you live in Sarasota County or nearby areas and are interested in adopting one of these babies (or others), please call me at 941-993-7001. - Raphaella

Cetacea by Theresa Foley - a Key West novel

Theresa Foley (of cat rescue fame), is my friend, my teacher (writing and hypnosis), and also a published author of five books, including Cetacea (my personal favorite), Love Prevails, and 3 collections of short stories by Key West authors. I've added Cetacea to my website or you can buy it on amazon.com. If you like Key West, dolphins, mystery books, and/or people making a difference, Cetacea is a good read. If you really love Key West, you may want to get all five of her books. Enjoy!!!

FACES - Etsy Treasury curated by Raphaella Vaisseau of Heartful Art

I'm happy to share my latest ETSY Treasury with you.  It's a collection of artists I've discovered while browsing the many shops of artists creating art from all over the world. Enjoy!!!

New Cat Painting by Raphaella Vaisseau

My girlfriends and I meet once a week to create art together . We make art & crafts to enjoy creativity and friendship for the sake of creativity and friendship. However, we also make things to help raise money for the Venice Cat Coalition and the Key West Cat Society and their work to reduce the cat overpopulation through TNR (trap/neuter/return).

So far we've made jewelry, collage, drawing, painting and last week we learned face painting. Tomorrow we're making cat toys. I've been loving this weekly communion with my friends in the spirit of creativity. Last week I started a new Etsy site (Rescue Cat Club) for us to sell our creations for the cats. I'll let you know when it's up and running. Meanwhile, enjoy "Diana".

Kittens now 16 days old

Here they are at 16 days old. I managed to get them away from their mother for the quick 5-minute photo shoot by bribing her with delicious kitty morsels in gravy. The kitties are still a little wobbly but they can see and hear now I think. They notice me when I come by to check on them. Meanwhile, Princess Diana hisses when she sees them and Apache hisses when she sees Diana. The kitty drama continues at my house but I am loving it.

Earth Day 2009 - festivites at Oscar Scherer State Park

Heartful Art, Hypnosis Venice, The Key West Cat Society and The Venice Cat Coalition will celebrate Earth Day on Sunday, April 19th (10am - 5pm) at the 20th Annual Earth Day Festival at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, Florida.

FYI:

Earth Day is always observed on April 22. International Earth Day is celebrated on the March equinox.

Reason We Celebrate Earth Day: To call attention to the environment.

History of Earth Day:
- Former U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson was Earth Day's co-founder.
- The first Earth Day was in April 22, 1970.
- Senator Nelson got the name after reading about San Francisco’s Earth Day celebration which was held on March 21, 1970.

Cats, Cats, Cats

I'm loving being a Feline Foster Mom. Diana, my amber angel, is a sweet, sweet being. She's learning to trust me and getting to know how to hang out with me (right by my laptop where Muffy used to sit) while I work. We take breaks to play and I feed her yummy things as part of her taming-training.

The kittens are nine days old today. They can't walk very well yet, or hold up their heads for more than a few seconds at a time but they sure are cute!

Mother Cat Gives Birth at My House

This beautiful (and maybe exhausted) mommy arrived at my house last night for me to take care of her during her pregnancy. We figured it would be two weeks. But around 4 am this morning she began birthing the first of her four little kittens. All is well. The kitties are 12 hours old in this picture.

Theresa Foley and the Venice Cat Coalition

The Venice Cat Coalition (VCC) is a group of small cat rescue organizations working together to save the cats of Venice, Florida and nearby communities. The Key West Cat Society (KWCS), a 501 C3 non-profit, was founded by Theresa Foley to help outdoor, homeless, abandoned and feral cats and kittens primarily by means of spay-neuter and Trap-Neuter-Release (TNR) programs. The two groups have trapped and fixed hundreds or cats in Key West and dozens in Venice. The Venice Cat Coalition was formed in 2008 to bring together trappers and colony caretakers working with feral cat colonies in South Sarasota County. Theresa's cat rescue organizations are involved in fostering kittens, finding permanent homes for adult cats and kittens, increasing the number of volunteer trappers, teaching members of the public to trap and spay-neuter the cats they feed on their property, and raise funds to pay for more surgeries for cats. Their mission is to "conduct the maximum number of spay-neuter of cats, primarily free-roaming outdoor cats, in the Venice-Englewood-Nokomis area of Sarasota County, and in Key West, Florida, as possible, with the objective of seeing cat euthanasia rates in Sarasota and Monroe Counties drop to 10% per year of all cats turned into or caught by shelters there by 2010."