Ravine Cats and small business ideas

[Daniel_Bingamon]

At the old factory where I used to have my workshop (recently moved to the garage), the site manager as a bunch of cats in the old abandoned buildings. The cats are great for old buildings with some warehouse space at keeping down the mice population. Some people have donated food for them, they get feed well.

[avanutria]

Daniel, is there any way to find out if they've been fixed? If they're a breeding colony they need to get sorted out.

[kkrell]

I've put a placeholder webpage in at http://www.ravinecats.com

This is just something to get a rough presence, and build in some functionality - devise child pages, etc. I'll have to work on getting some graphics, and see what I can cobble up on web design to improve on the concept.

Kevin Krell

[avanutria]

"Cats helping themselves" - and learning HTML. I love it. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

[crookedtune]

We're experiencing a ravine shortage here in NC. But we've got grass cats: http://www.grasscats.com/thecats.htm

[dwest]

We're experiencing a ravine shortage here in NC. But we've got grass cats: http://www.grasscats.com/thecats.htm

I always thought NC was rich in ravines including the big ones called coves. Ravines are where all the Plethodon richmondi live.

[kkrell]

"Cats helping themselves" - and learning HTML. I love it. I'll be keeping an eye on this one.

I've made some changes to the http://www.ravinecats.com website, moving items around, starting to add links, etc., and making it easier for the cats to edit.

I'd appreciate any comments & suggestions, and please let me know of any valuable cat-related links.

Thanks,


Kevin Krell
Ravine Cat caretaker

[emmline]

It's looking good Kevin.

[Infernaltootler]

Would a bit of google adwords bring a trickle of cash in?

[kkrell]

Would a bit of google adwords bring a trickle of cash in?

Thanks, I tried that with the worldtrad.org non-profit and it did not seem worthwhile. I will get some appropriate keywords involved on the site, and hope to have links both in/out from rescue organizations.

[avanutria]

Kevin, would you be interested in a sort of referral donation thing? I sell a small number of handcrafts online through Etsy.com and could donate a percentage of purchases made when the buyer mentions Ravine Cats. Let me know if you're interested.

[kkrell]

I'm not going to actively solicit donations (although I did add a PayPal Donate button to the site). The intention is to run a profitable online pet store business and earn $$$ by providing value. Probably means only U.S. purchasers, and "Don't buy out of pity - buy what you'd use anyway". Donations are NOT tax-deductible in this setup, but any donations will be used solely for cat food, medications & medical care. I've had to pull a couple of cats out to treat a dental abscess (coming out through the cheek), for a neck wound, etc., and the local rescue agencies have limited funds to help. I took in a feral with a salivary gland cancer and cared for him for 18 months (he died in November, but with a good quality of life) - not exactly cheap, but a wonderful experience nonetheless. http://www.box.net/shared/7b9229vbt4

I have done the non-profit corporation thing with the International Traditional Music Society (took it all the way to 501c3 IRS-approved) and the Wooden Flute Obsession CD project.

Some of the local rescues are official 501c3, and others (a woman who handles about 45 bottle-babies at a time) are just generous with their time and resources. I'll be including Local Links on the Ravine Cats site for those I think deserve support.

Right now, what you people can do to help would be to suggest articles & videos for me to include as educational material (some nice stuff under the Video Link). I'd also like photos of your cats (particularly if formerly stray, feral, saved from shelters, etc.) and their names to possibly include in a (rotating?) Gallery of "Friends of Ravine cats". Thanks.

Kevin Krell

[lalit]

Kevin, I know some former ferals who would like to be friends with the Ravine Cats. What size & format do you prefer for photos?

[kkrell]

Kevin, I know some former ferals who would like to be friends with the Ravine Cats. What size & format do you prefer for photos?

I should be able to convert & format nearly any image type. Well, I don't know if Photoshop has modified the .PSD format since CS2, but that's what I have, as well as other utility software.

[kkrell]

Here's some information on the types of challenges I am trying to be ready for my colony. This organization puts it really well.

http://www.feralcatcaretakers.org/CareC ... enges.html


Kevin Krell