by Ruth Fruehauf &
Jann Garitty

Ruth Fruehauf is one of a group of people who have taken it upon themselves to save the lives of abandoned and/or feral cats. At the end of last year, the members of the group owned or were fostering more than 110 cats from around the area in which they live in California. There are an astounding number of feral cats in the United States and elsewhere in the world.

With their own money, the group traps, then spays or neuters the animals, and attends to other health issues which may be present. Their work is similar to that of other trap/neuter/release programs that are utilized throughout the country. In addition to trying to socialize some of the cats so that they might be adopted into good homes, members of Ruth’s volunteer group are also caregivers for feral colonies living in their own neighborhoods.

Ruth and some of the others of her group utilize alternative health care choices as much as possible when administering to the cats under their care. Ruth in particular, uses flower essences which she says work extraordinarily well given that initially, many of the feral cats cannot be handled and therefore treated with traditional veterinary medicine. Flower essences used in spray bottles are perfect in such situations. Following is Ruth’s account of a recent rescue situation—

“I was called by a friend who knew of my activities with rescuing cats when he discovered a barn full of neglected and feral cats. We rescued about 18 from this colony, some with traps and some were tame enough to handle. All of them were sick, badly nourished and terrified since they had been used by the local ranchers for target practice.

The most seriously ill was a female tortoise shell who had serious digestive difficulties and would scream in the litter box. After employing diet changes and adding supplements to her food, her condition progressed forcing me to take her to our local vet. After the examination, we discovered that not only did she have a terrible case of advanced parasites but that she was also in the final term of a pregnancy. In this case, I had no choice but to use alternative medicine to protect the unborn babies.

I started to use Magenta Healer and Five-Flower Formula along with a raw food diet, acidophilus, yeast, kelp, antiparasitic herbs and bran. I administered diluted Magenta Healer to her hourly. She very gradually recovered; her babies were born fat and healthy and larger than typical kittens. Now that the babies have arrived, I have been using Yarrow Environmental Solution for both the mom and babies, spray and liquid, along with Magenta Healer . Mom and babies are doing marvelously.

The other feral cats that I rescued were impossible to handle as they were terrified and totally wild. In order to treat them for upper respiratory disease, I used Five-Flower Formula to great success in addition to a combination of Yarrow Environmental Solution , Magenta Healer , Self-Heal and Quaking Grass . All of the ferals are now spayed and neutered and four of them have become tame enough to be adopted out to good homes.  At first, some of the members of my group advised me to use a traditional western medical approach to these cats’ health care. They were critical of my choices but are now amazed at the results of the beautiful healthy kittens and the well adjusted happy wild ones, too. ”

Ruth Fruehauf has worked in the arts field during her entire career, now managing the West Coast business for artnet.com. She lived in New York City for 20 years where she developed her interest in holistic living. She said: “I love living in Mariposa and am active in a great book group, go to wonderful yoga classes, enjoy wildflower walks and of course, love spending time with my crew!” Ruth also speaks French fluently and is a member of the French club in her area.