Aloha & Welcome from Phyllis Tavares, Executive Director of 9th Life Hawaii

  WHAT HAVE WE DONE IN THE PAST YEAR WITH YOUR HELP!!

Meet the 9th Life Kitties
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As we approach our third year anniversary at 9th Life Hawaii’s very own Sanctuary, we can look back and say Mahalo for your help because what we have accomplished so far could not have been done without the support of our donors, supporters, grantors, Maui businesses that have donated to our auctions, volunteers for their tireless efforts and the vets that have worked with us to humanely and nonlethally reduce the cat population. Our goal is to spay and neuter cats as often as we can to reduce cat overpopulation humanely. Sterilization on a mass scale. Absolutely guaranteed to work.

We have sterilized more than 1,700 cats since we began our free/low-cost spay/neuter clinics in 2006. Just about half of those sterilizations were done at our sanctuary in our fully-equipped surgery room (Thanks to an equipment grant from PetSmart Charities). The first vet to use our new surgery room was Dr. Tom Chlebecek. Sadly, we have had to say Aloha Oe to Dr. Tom who had been flying over from Oahu for more than two years on average every six weeks to sterilize Maui’s kitties. Dr. Tom has moved to Europe and has accepted a position at the Leberec Zoo. Dr. Tom sent us a photo with some of his new patients, the likes of which cannot be found on Maui. Good luck Dr. Tom. We miss you.

For more than two years, we have been pleading for a travel trailer to convert to an isolation unit. (We could still use a travel trailer for a cat caretaker’s quarters.) Thanks to the persistence of Lori Ramona whom I have nicknamed Wonder Woman, we received a donation of an old office building from Sonny Vick’s Paving Company in 2008. Termite tenting was donated by Bowman Termite and moving it to the sanctuary in 2009 (no small thing) was donated by Tri Isle Freight. It was a real community effort. Mahalo, mahalo, mahalo. Paul Scalici of Affordable Electric then donated the installation of electricity to it and he has promised to come back and install a sink & plumbing so we can wash up and disinfect after handling sick cats being cared for in what will (hopefully soon) be our isolation unit. We have received the promise of tile from Toni & Don Cole but we still need roofing material, exterior doors and security doors and the installers to install these materials and then we will have a purrfect isolation unit. If you can help in these areas, please call our main line (808) 572-3499 or email us at 9thlifehawaii@earthlink.net

Also within the past year, we received a grant that enabled us to install Purrfect Cat Fencing completely around the sanctuary and now a large percentage of our cats safely roam-free within our 2 ½ acres. And boy do they love it. The cats do not climb over this fencing. It really works. We have transferred over all of the cats from our original rented location and at this point in time our catteries are full to the brim. However, there is no let up in the number of calls we receive from people needing help to place their cats or to relocate sterilized feral cat colonies that are in harms way.

We also completed an adoption room & bonding room although both still need to be painted. (Volunteer painters, are you out there??) And we must install a small enclosed entry area so that when you open the exterior door to the adoption room, the cats inside the adoption room cannot escape out onto our acreage. By the way, we are really happy to say that we have had a 100% success rate for all our adoptable kittens.

Big Red watches Bottle Baby Quinta as she walks towards two of our youngest volunteers. Quinta is the sole survivor of a litter of five orphans that came to us as newborns. She is still tiny and under-sized for her age and it was touch and go for a while, but we do think she is over the hump. Quinta required syringe feeding every two hours because she just stopped eating. She now weighs in at a healthy one pound up from 4 ounces when we rescued her.

For several years we have asked the Maui Humane Society to allow 9th Life Hawaii to foster the bottle babies that they considered unadoptable and would routinely euthanize because these little ones weighed less than a pound and a half. This year we are happy to say that they accepted our offer of help and we have rescued 125 kittens so far. Setting up this foster program and huge network of fosterers has certainly become our most ambitious project in 2009. In fact some of these babies still had their umbilical cords attached and weighed as little as three ounces. We fostered roughly 1/3 of these babies at the 9th Life sanctuary itself and put out a call for help.

Once again the Maui community opened their hearts and their homes and took in the rest of the kittens to foster. 9th Life held training classes and provided kitten replacement formula, bottles, litter boxes and medicine (these babies came with an assortment of illnesses and pest infestations) to help the fosterers properly care for these babies. If you are interested in volunteering for this program or any other, please call 572-3499. The photos that follow are just a few of the kitten whose lives we saved with YOUR donations We have also held spay/neuter clinics with participating veterinarians at their clinics throughout the past few years.

We could not have accomplished any of these projects without your support and we want to thank you for helping us save lives. We thank you for your trust, your compassion and your donations. In these very difficult economic times, we need your help more than ever. We can’t decide to provide less food or medical care if our donations slow down (and they have slowed down). We have no corners to cut. We ask you to please not forget those that cannot speak for themselves. We are still run 100% by volunteers. Every penny of every donation goes directly to help the kitties. Every donation to 9th Life Hawaii saves lives. Every donation large and small. With your help and support, we can and do work miracles every day. Thank you for sharing and being part of our dream. No Kill vs. Kill. It’s a No Brainer. If you want to help, make monthly donations using the link to your right.

Monthly Donation to 9th Life Hawaii choose amount $10.00 Monthly $20.00 Monthly $30.00 Monthly $40.00 Monthly $50.00 Monthly $75.00 Monthly $100.00 Monthly

Or you can mail donations as well as gift certificates for our auctions to - 9th Life Hawaii, Box 476, Makawao, HI 96768.

News Flash - click to enter [opens in new window]
9th Life Hawaii has just received a donation of a one week stay from September 5 through September 12, 2009 (7 nights) at the beautiful, ocean front Ma’alaea Kai. You can learn more about these lovely accommodations by clicking on the owner’s website www.vrbo.com/40374 This condo usually rents out for $170.00 per night. This 2 Bedroom, 2 bath condo will sleep 5 and is centrally located in lovely Ma’alaea. More information is available on the above website regarding the amenities. 9th Life Hawaii will be offering this as a door prize at our July 15 open Board Meeting. Winner need not be present. The opportunity to win this door prize will be limited to the first 100 people who donate $100.00 so you will have a fabulous one in 100 likelihood of winning this door prize.

Each $100.00 donation entitles you to one opportunity of winning this fabulous door prize. But don’t wait, because it is limited to the first 100 people who donate. Please pass this email on to your friends and family. A great way to help Maui's kitties and maybe you will end up spending a vacation together with friends or family.