Meet The Benders AKA: Sauerkraut's Humom And Pops

As many of you know, I recently attended the very first CatCon LA. It was a fabulous mix of vendors, cat-centric organizations, cat celebrities, human celebrities and inspirational cats/people. The latter being the group I wasn’t expecting to meet. I knew I was super excited to make new contacts, to find the latest and greatest cat accessories and shop for my furry family, but I didn’t really expect the inspiration.

Meeting people who spend their lives making the lives of cats better, now that’s really meeting my tribe. It is my passion in my life and my career and now more than ever I realize it’s the same for so many others. For this particular blog I want to introduce you to one of those very special people. Amy Bender is the kind of person who I want to call a friend, She is the kind of person who not only talks the talk, but who walks the walk. She is a champion for cats and especially for cats with special needs. She also happens to be mom to a celebrity cat. If you don’t Amy by name you probably know Sauerkraut and Amy is Sauerkraut’s mom or Humom, as many of us know her. Amy and her husband Patrick volunteer for the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and have fostered over 100 cats and kittens in the past 5 years. One of these fosters was Sauerkraut. But this particular foster, this special kitty, stole their hearts and ended up being adopted by them.

So fast forward. I’m back home in the office looking at my pictures from California and there I am with Sauerkraut. I knew right then I was reaching out to them so I could share their story as I think Amy, Patrick and Sauerkraut have a very special message and one i needed my readers to see. The Benders recently traveled from Oklahoma City to L.A. stopping along the way at rescues and shellers to spread the message of fostering, adoption and adopting special needs cats. I am truly inspired by what they did and the message they shared.

So please enjoy my chat with Amy Bender aka: Sauerkraut’s Humom.

1. Have cats always been a part of your life?

Yes! If you think Sauerkraut has an odd name, some of my childhood kitties names were REALLY out there. There was “Hauled Off Job”, a momma kitty that someone dumped in our driveway in a box, with her litter of kittens. There was also a kitty named Toe Biter. A big old orange tom cat that liked to bite toes. Then there was Cracker Jack, a tiny female siamese mix kitty that was a ferocious hunter!

2. How long have you been volunteering for the Central Oklahoma Humane Society and what drew you to volunteering?

I’ve been volunteering with OK Humane since 2010. My oldest daughter initially started volunteering there. They needed bottle baby fosters and she knew I had done that before, so I signed up.

3. How did you become interested fostering? I’ve fostered on and off since 1995. One of my first jobs out of high school was working for a no kill animal rescue in Edmond, Oklahoma. Since we were no kill, we were nearly always at capacity. When people would call to surrender their animals, I would tell them that we were unable to take them. Some of them would then threaten to do the most horrendous things to these precious animals, so I would personally foster them until a space opened up.

4. What would you like to tell anyone considering fostering? You are literally saving lives. I have 8 fosters in the foster room right now. They were less then 5 minutes away from being euthanized. Their stray time was up and they were all too small OR had a very treatable illness. The injections were being drawn up when our intake manager rushed in. She couldn’t have saved them though if there was no place for them to go. Most animal control shelters require a foster commitment from a rescue before they’ll release them. We can’t blame the shelters for this either. This is a people problem.

5. When you first laid eyes on Sauerkraut did you have any hesitations in adopting a special needs cat? Me, not really. Patrick (Pops) though? Yes! He was very worried about the responsibility and adjustments we’d have to make. We like to travel, and Sauerkraut’s needs make us worried about leaving her with the pet sitter. Fortunately she travels very well and goes everywhere with us! He can’t imagine life without her now!

6. Can you tell me about Sauerkrauts medical issues and what this means as far as caring for her? and do the other kitties in your home act differently with her?

Sauerkraut has several issues. When she came to us, all we knew was that she was “Failure to Thrive”. She was very small for her age and wouldn’t eat much at all. I syringe fed her for the first couple of weeks. We also thought she was deaf for at least the first week. She didn’t react to any noises. After further testing, we discovered she wasn’t deaf, but she does have some neurological issues that make her less reactive to situations that would stress out most cats. Vacuums and car rides are no big deal to her. She has mouth and facial deformities that make it more difficult for her to eat. It’s like a reverse cleft palate. The roof of her mouth forms a “V” on the inside. Dry food makes her gag violently. You may have noticed that her eyes seem huge! They are the regular size, but they bulge out. Consequently, they leak continuously. If we don’t wipe her face several times a day, she develops yeast infections on her face.

She had a grade three heart murmur until she was 18 months old. Fortunately it resolved itself, which we were told is pretty rare after one year old, so we are so thankful for that! Finally she has Feline Hyperesthesia Syndrome. Basically it’s a neurological/seizure disorder that causes her back to “ripple”, then she’ll run crazily throughout the house, even in to walls and furniture. Finally, she’ll start scratching herself until she causes wounds. When this first manifested, she had her heart murmur and that made giving her the anti-anxiety & seizure medication risky. I read an ASPCA article about how clothing, and compression therapy worked on one kitty in their program and we tried it. It has worked amazingly well! She still has the back ripples and she’ll still run around, but it’s less out of control. When she does start to scratch, the clothing distracts her and she starts licking it. The other cats treat her very normally. There is a hierarchy for sure! Molly is at the top, followed by Sauerkraut. The two boys, Brock and Cal, are at the bottom! Brock and Sauerkraut are best buddies. They love snuggling together.

7. Other than the medical issues what makes adopting a special needs kitty so special? You’re able to triumph in all their successes. Be that using the litter box for the first time, or finding an adaptation that makes their life a little easier.

8. What would Sauerkraut say to anyone considering opening their heart and home to a special needs kitty? Do it! Sauerkraut is magnificently imperfect and we couldn’t love her more!

9 And lastly I know you just returned from an amazing cross county trip with Sauerkraut so can you tell me how this came about and why you decided to do this?

Right after Sauerkraut “went viral”, we decided we needed to use her fame to help spread the word about adoption, fostering and special needs cats. Many of the rescues we visited have a serious lack of resources. They need money and volunteers, foster parents and supplies. I couldn’t provide that, but what we could provide was exposure and media. Nearly every stop (9 in all) was covered by either television, radio or newsprint media. We heard many people say, “I didn’t even know this place was here”! Now people know where it is and what they need! Our hope is to get sponsorship for next summer and go East! We funded this trip ourselves as a test. I believe we were hugely successful!

A very special thank you to Amy, Patrick and Sauerkraut.

To follow Sauerkraut check out her website:

http://www.sauerkrautkitty.com

“What greater gift than the love of a cat.” ― Charles Dickens

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