100,000+ acres and over 1000 residences burned in Bastrop this past September 2011 as 57 separate wildfires scorched Texas near Catz Jazz Rescue headquarters. By September 18, the collective Texas wildfires ongoing from April, May, and September had burned 3,699,051 acres and about 2,690 homes here in Texas (1,939 of which burned over the Labor Day weekend).

Catz Jazz Rescue, is located in Cedar Creek in Bastrop County situated on 9 acres on our director’s property here in Texas and our headquarters were directly in the line of fire.

Dozens of aircraft responded to fire danger, including four heavy airtankers, 15 single-engine airtankers, and 13 aerial supervision aircraft. This was the most severe of the more than 180 wildfires reported in a single week during the weekend of September 3rd, 2011 across our state.

Cedar Creek is just up the way from Austin and the fire that burned there was 16 miles long and 4 miles wide.

We were ordered off-property with little warning into emergency shelters and our director, Cathy Taylor, had been evacuated along with all of our indoor rescue cats, many of which are special needs cases, as the Bastrop County wildfire approached her home. Cathy and those cats are currently safe in temporary housing.

Hundreds of firefighters from around the country descended upon Texas to fight the monster blaze, a fire so big it can be seen in satellite images from space.

We want to thank all who inquired about our safety as numerous wildfires continued to burn out of control in the Bastrop County area.

We greatly appreciate your hopeful thoughts and prayers during this overwhelming time as we were absolutely horrified at the damage and destruction caused to our neighbors and friends in this area.

Though Director Taylor's property was in the line of fire, we are incredibly thankful to report that damage to the property itself was minimal, in the grand scheme of things...

~~~

A Letter From Our Rescue Director

"We are very comforted by the inquiries from all the folks concerned for our welfare during the this stressful time dealing with the evacuation due to the area wildfires. We were lucky as the main extent of damages to the property was woods burned at the front of the property.

We have a fair amount of damaged fencing due to burning trees falling and crushing the fencing there and also there was damage to the front and side fences.

The residence is far back on the property and thankfully due to the hard work of the Forest Service and other volunteers the fire was contained before getting close to the home.

I managed to safely evacuate the animals and they are being fostered with various friends and supporters. We are going to keep most of them in their foster positions for a time as the whole area is so dry and the possibility of this happening again is all too real till we get some rain and I DO NOT want to risk the animals lives unnecessarily.

The cats/kittens are being real troopers during this time of upheaval and confusion and we are so proud of them for adapting to the situation so well.

Thank you,"
Cathy Taylor
Catz Jazz Rescue Founder/Director

~~~

A Letter From Our Assistant Coordinator

"Though we are still stunned and shaken, we are relieved that headquarters are still standing and that Cathy and the indoor cats are safe.

We are now coordinating to recover a large amount of foods and medications lost and are asking for help in quickly trying to recover the most-needed items.

The Bastrop Wildfire near our rescue headquarters had caused major power outages which resulted in other losses such as spoiled refrigerated medications for the sheltered rescues and kitten milk replacement that requires refrigeration, all of which has been lost. Frozen food items such as meat and poultry have spoiled; these are items kept on-hand for home-cooking for the special needs cats requiring specific diets. Temperature-sensitive prescription drugs on hand have lost potency. Our stock supply of dry cat food has been affected due to smoke fumes. Additionally, we may need to raise funds for smoke odor eliminator equipment.

We have put together a list of items that were lost that we are asking for help to recover. If you would like to make a donation of any of these items, please contact us to arrange pickup, we would be very grateful for any replacements and other items that will significantly help us get back on track during this stressful time.

Thank you so much,"
Sydney Colvin-Gibbs
sydney@catzjazz.org
Catz Jazz Rescue Webmaster/Volunteer Coordinator


The following items were lost due to electrical lines being down for several days:
These are all needed for the strict diets for special needs cats like Neena who need to be kept on due to the previous neglectful/abusive treatment endured before their rescue. Many of our cats need freshly cooked foods daily.

Food items:

12 pounds frozen Talapia
12 pounds frozen Catfish
5 pounds ground Sirloin
5 pounds ground Turkey
5 pounds ground Lamb
10 pounds Whole chicken
1 pound Chicken Livers

MANY POUNDS lost from the back stock of dry food.

These are supplements added to Neena's daily meals.
Supplements:

Taurine capsules(500mg)
Bonemeal tabs(250mg)
Multi Vitamin(w/o iron)
Calcium Carbonate

Temp. sensitive meds:

Penicillin injectable(50ml bottle)
Baytril injectable(20ml bottle)
Forti Flora(boxes of 30 packets, 1 gram each packet)
Feline 3-way vaccines(2 trays of 25 each)
Also kitten milk(brand preferred is Nurturall-C), we find the kittens do best on this brand.

If you can help us recover any of these items, please contact us to arrange pick up! Sydney 512-287-0065 or Cathy 512-636-8473


You can also make a Donation by PayPal. PLEASE MAKE A NOTE "BASTROP FIRE RECOVERY FUND"
Any amount helps and we will be listing donors on a page dedicated to the recovery process.

Donate food/medicine items in person during adoption days at Lakeline Petsmart: Every Sat/Sun from noon till 5pm. 11066 Pecan Park Blvd Cedar Park, TX 78613

Donate by check: Payable to: Catz Jazz 170 Marjess Dr. Cedar Creek, Tx 78612

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ANY HELP!