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Health & Fitness

Parades and Pussycats

That is when we decided to dress up one of our cars like a cat. Easier said than done, though.

A parade of cats and kittens has come through our house on their way to finding their forever home. After a year or so of fostering and rescue work the Metrowest Animal Awareness Society, we found  ourselves in a parade, marching for the cats.

Marlborough has a parade on Labor Day. Not just any parade, though. Marlborough has a big parade. A parade filled with hours of great marching bands, floats, military reenactors, boy scouts, girls scouts, jugglers, politicians from the governor to the local councilors, causes, groups and single marchers, Charros Mexicanos (Mexican Cowboys), miniature ponies and giant Clydsdale horses, police cars, fire trucks, rescue vehicles, clubs, clowns, bicycles, motorcycles , a family of unicycles, and there was even one cat who led the way for a car dressed like a cat. That cat and that car represented the Metrowest Animal Awareness Society.

In an effort to let the local community know that MAAS is a local cat rescue organization that helps with feral cat colony control and finding low cost ways to spay and neuter, we decided to see if we could take part in the Marlborough parade. But what to do? You never know from day to day what cats will be in the rescue at a given moment, so determining whether we had a cat that could be in the parade was dependent on so many different things. The cat, the weather, the time, etc. It seemed we should have a back up plan as well. That is when we decided to dress up one of our cars like a cat. Easier said than done, though.

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First, we had to pick the car. My husband and a friend bought an 1959 Hillman Minx. My husband has a car rescue, but he does not really admit that to me or himself. That Hillman Minx was made to go slow and be a parade car! So, my daughter and I decided the Minx was the one for the Labor Day Parade.

We made cat ears from cardboard covered in brown and pink Fleece. We sewed a pink fleece nose and a brown fleece cat muzzle (the muzzle of a cat is the nice little cheeky area around the mouth) and took some silk grass picks and painted them into a whiskers. The tail was tough, because we could not content ourselves to have a cat less than happy. Our cat had to have the tail up, in the happy, friendly cat way! But an old broom stick handle was covered a stuffed fleece cover and attached to the rear bumper, and out parade cat car was ready to roll.

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Rescue volunteers came, and as the weather was nice that day, we had the perfect kitty for the job. Big Boo was a great black cat that was calm and easy going, not bothered by noise and activity. We had a fully protected pet stroller, and he was the star of our group.

I hope lots of folks saw MAAS in the parade. What a great feeling it was when people called out to us that they had adopted from us, and how happy they were with their feline family! Big Boo later found his forever home too. And before we know it, Labor Day will be here again. I guess now is the time to ask ourselves if we should bring the cat car back out for another parade...

About our guest:

Ellen Silverstein is the secretary of Metrowest Animal Awareness Society.  Her family has fostered many cats and rescued plenty, as well!

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