[Vision2020] Caturday (February 1, 2014)

[Moscow Cares]

Courtesy of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at:

http://www.post-gazette.com/local/south/2014/01/30/Girl-s-paintings-help-homeless-cats/stories/201401230035
 
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Girl's paintings help homeless cats

Four-year old Jayla Glemba of Charleroi is a budding artist whose paintings are the cat’s meow. Shy at first, she will tell you that she knows her simple acrylic creations are raising money to help cats like her beloved pet, Gnarly, who was once a homeless tomcat.

What she may not understand, explains her mother, Kristin Glemba, is the magnitude of the amount raised — more than $775 last week — through a Facebook auction.

“She knows the money is going back to help other cats, but she doesn’t know how big it is,” Mrs. Glemba said.

The proceeds from five paintings and donations from additional commissioned works will go toward the Homeless Cat Management Team of Pittsburgh. With a clinic in Tarentum, the nonprofit’s mission is to halt the overpopulation of companion animals in the Pittsburgh area by providing high-volume, high-quality, low-cost sterilization.

“If you don’t get the cats fixed [the population] spreads out of control. The cats breed so quickly and will have three to six litters each year. They can start breeding at six months,” said Margo Cicci, a volunteer with the organization.

Fundraisers like Jayla’s paintings pay for supporting the group’s Trap-Neuter-Return program. Responding to calls from communities with out-of-control cat populations, the group supplies humane traps so volunteers can take the cats to the clinic where they are spayed or neutered, given rabies shots and other medical care and then returned to area where they live.

Last fall the group received a call from a manager of a mobile home park in Ford City, concerned with the well-being of over 100 homeless cats in the area.

“We held an online auction on Facebook of donated services and goods and made over $1,000. It was enough money to send Frankie’s Friends, a mobile spay and neuter unit, there,” said Ms. Cicci. More than 50 cats were treated there on Jan. 19.

The organization also works with Pittsburgh Feral Cat, which builds shelters to provide communities with cat colonies. They are made from 37-gallon insulated storage containers or pharmaceutical coolers and have an entrance and an exit. The shelters provide safe places for the homeless cats when they are returned to their communities.

Pittsburgh Feral Cat also finds homes for the cats.

Ms. Cicci found Gnarly lurking around her Finleyville business, Cicci Dance Suppliers, last summer.

“He was a mess, his eyes were crusted over,” she said. She started to feed the cat so that he would become friendly enough to trust Ms. Cicci to have him neutered, reducing the risk of him getting into fights with other cats. Fearing the cat would get hit by a car on nearby Route 88, she found a home for him at the Glemba home.

He became fast friends with Jayla who decided she wanted to help other cats like Gnarly. She has had no formal lessons, but Jayla creates her paintings by looking at photographs. Mrs. Glemba said she and her husband, Beau, are not artistic, but Jayla’s grandfather, Joseph Glemba, is a painter.

“If she sees someone else doing something, and she is interested, she can do it,” Mrs. Glemba said.

She said as long as Jayla wants to paint for charity, she will encourage her daughter. Jayla also attends preschool and rides her ponies, Cindy Lou Who and Buttercup, at Mrs. Glemba’s horse training facility, Redds Mill Ranch.

“This instantly took off. A couple people asked if they could get paintings of their own cat,” Mrs. Glemba said.

Through the magic of Facebook networking, Los Angeles resident, Sandy Zalagens, who once babysat Ms. Cicco when she lived in Finleyville, saw the auction and placed a bid.

“I saw these paintings, and I just loved the idea. The painting that caught my eye was of a black cat, but I got outbid,” said Ms. Zalagens who is involved in dog rescue in her community. She requested Jayla paint a picture of her pit bull, Petey, for $70.

“Some of my friends are also commissioning things as well. Jayla holds up her paintings (in Facebook photos) and she is so proud. She’s a charmer,” said Ms. Zalagens.

Jayla’s last auction ended Jan. 17, but according to her mother, she plans on continuing her efforts with at least two more paintings, a colorful abstract and a fish.

“She does get that it’s going to help kitties like Gnarly get help. To see the two of them is the happiest ending to any story I could ever wish for,” Ms. Cicci said.

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Jayla Glemba works on a painting.



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Seeya 'round town, Moscow, because . . .

"Moscow Cares" (the most fun you can have with your pants on)
http://www.MoscowCares.com
  
Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho
 
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