{"id":70209,"date":"2018-12-17T09:05:04","date_gmt":"2018-12-17T13:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/?p=70209"},"modified":"2018-12-17T09:07:14","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T13:07:14","slug":"gemini-farm-offers-home-for-cats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.owegopennysaver.com\/PS\/2018\/12\/17\/gemini-farm-offers-home-for-cats\/","title":{"rendered":"Gemini Farm offers home for cats"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Gemini<\/a>

Diana Oliver of Gemini Farm in Windham holds her cat Bully, one of about 50 at the animal sanctuary. For more information on the farm, visit www.geminifarmromepa.net. She welcomes donations and volunteers. Photo credit: Nancy Sharer.<\/p><\/div>\n

The sun bathes his fur. He lies soaking it in, eyes shut, head resting on the floor and front leg stretched out. Ahhh – life is good.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good for him and the other cats on the farm here in Windham. They have a home, they have happiness – and they have love.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the thing that I like about cats is – there\u2019s something calming about the purr of a cat,\u201d Diana Oliver said. Cats make you feel special, too, because they choose you.<\/p>\n

Oliver runs Gemini Farm in Windham, a sanctuary for animals, especially cats. It\u2019s a peaceful place, with flowers out front and a back yard looking over the hills. Here, dogs, cats, horses and more can eat, run, play and be themselves. And maybe they\u2019ll find new homes, too.<\/p>\n

Or maybe not. That\u2019s okay. Oliver will take care of them.<\/p>\n

Oliver has been involved with animals, and animal rescue, for many years. It\u2019s more than a job. It\u2019s her passion.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father and my mother liked animals,\u201d she recalled of her childhood in Binghamton, N.Y. She wanted a horse. Her parents told her she could have all the animals she wanted, when she grew up. They thought she\u2019d live on a farm with just a couple critters. \u201cAnd that wasn\u2019t it,\u201d she exclaimed.<\/p>\n

As an adult she ran a quarter horse farm in southern Pennsylvania. Later, she taught animal science \u2013 grooming, kennel management, vet tech work and so on \u2013 for 30 years at BOCES in Binghamton.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy career was animals and my hobbies were animals!\u201d<\/p>\n

In the 1970s she started doing animal rescue, for horses, dogs and goats. \u201cBack then rescue wasn\u2019t a big thing,\u201d she said. She tried miniature and thoroughbred horse breeding but found the racehorses faced poor futures if they didn\u2019t succeed. The miniatures were a novelty, she said, and suffered with the same dilemma. She phased out those specialties and kept the little horses.<\/p>\n

\"Gemini<\/a>

Gemini Farm also offers a sanctuary for other kinds of animals, such as miniature horses, and goats, dogs and geese. Photo credit: Nancy Sharer.<\/p><\/div>\n

In 1986, she moved to Windham. \u201cI\u2019ve been rescuing farm animals since probably the late eighties or early nineties,\u201d she explained. \u201cAnd then basically we realized that these animals really didn\u2019t have a place to go.\u201d So, she focused on offering a sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Farm animals are harder work, though, and Oliver has reached her early 70s. So today she\u2019s no longer adding them but instead focusing largely on cats. \u201cI\u2019ve always done cat rescue,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

Today, she has about 50. \u201cThey\u2019re my colony,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are literally thousands of cats out there that are never going to get a home. To me they\u2019re very special,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s partnered with Paws and Claws Society Inc. in Thorofare, New Jersey. Oliver shares Internet information on the 501c3 volunteer charity: \u201cFor 25 years,\u201d it says, \u201cPACS has shared its vision to humanely improve the quality of life for animals with groups and individuals wishing to help animals in their local communities. Thanks to the efforts of Paws and Claws Society, Cape May County became the first no-kill county in the state of New Jersey, and Cape May County was not PACS\u2019s first no-kill success. PACS is currently working its magic in several communities bordering New York and Pennsylvania. Since October 2015, Paws and Claws Society has partnered with Gemini Farm to offer PACS SAFER Cats on the Border program in Rome and Warren townships, Pa., as well as Nichols, Barton and Waverly, N.Y.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliver and PACS believe spaying\/neutering is the solution to animal overpopulation. But too many animal owners don\u2019t do it. So, Gemini uses the PACS spay\/neuter program for wild, stray and barn cats.<\/p>\n

If, for example, a farmer reports cats have been dropped at his barn, Gemini will pick them up. (Two trappers help with this.) They take them to a vet, where they are spayed or neutered, tested for feline leukemia, vaccinated for rabies and distemper, and treated for any parasites they have. <\/p>\n

\"Gemini<\/a>

A cat relaxes on the back porch at Diana Oliver\u2019s home. Photo credit: Nancy Sharer.<\/p><\/div>\n

Gemini started the project in November 2015. Since then, Oliver said, \u201cWe\u2019ve done about 1,200 cats.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gemini offers its services to anyone paying property taxes in Rome or Nichols, or anyone in a home whose owners pays taxes there. Four foster homes help Oliver care for cats that might need some recuperation time after spaying\/neutering or other surgeries before being adopted. <\/p>\n

Gemini also has partnered with Cape Atlantic Cats in Ocean City, New Jersey, and sometimes sends kittens there to be adopted. It also offers cats for adoption straight from the Windham farm. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we are all in this together,\u201d Oliver said of the different groups. For example, consider Peach. A friend of a PACS board member wanted a certain kind of cat for another friend, but at first no one could find one. Finally, she found a picture of Peach at the Chemung Humane Society and SPCA Inc., way up in Elmira, N.Y. PACS contacted Oliver, who made arrangements with one of her foster home people who drove Peach from Elmira all the way to Ocean City.<\/p>\n

As a rooster crowed outdoors, Oliver reported she has eight miniature horses and donkeys, eight geese, eight sheep, chickens, five dogs – besides the 50 cats. The horses, donkeys, sheep and goats have sheds and pastures, while the others are free to roam the farm, with cats and dogs also allowed in the house. Oliver has cat feeding station indoors and outdoors.<\/p>\n

She offered a tour. A sunroom holds cages, like one for a cat that had leg surgery and a mother nursing her kittens. The back porch holds chairs, a lounger, flowerpots \u2013 and cats. <\/p>\n

Oliver grows more flowers and some vegetables in the back yard, including kale for the geese. Sheds house goats, such as Rhubarb, and miniature horses, including Sparrow, who lives with Benny the donkey. Geese with orange bills and gray feathers strutted around the lawn. \u201cSheep! Sheep!\u201d Oliver called. A little flock hurried around a corner to see her. <\/p>\n

She shows a new project, a heated room in another shed for wild cats to use in the winter. Just needs a coat of paint and there you\u2019ll have it \u2013 a feral feline flat! The room next to it will hold toys, and a fenced yard outside will keep them from wandering off and getting hurt.<\/p>\n

Oliver introduces or tells about the cats: There\u2019s Sunshine, who\u2019s 18 now, and Bruce. \u201cHe just arrived one day!\u201d And Phyllis, one of ten kittens discovered on a load of construction material from Philadelphia brought to Binghamton. \u201cAnd so Phyllis came to me and I bottle-fed her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dapper Dan was a stray at the Dandy Mini Mart in Rome. Someone shot his leg off. And you have Denny and Joey and Kyle, all found abandoned in a park, and Melody, the Persian. And Floyd From the Flood (of 2011). <\/p>\n

\u201cWe think that she was dumped off from a van,\u201d Oliver explained about Vanna\u2019s name. Vanna gave birth to Ranger, also named after a vehicle.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s Bully (not really one). Tinkerbell. And Rat Breath.<\/p>\n

Roly Poly and three other kittens were found abandoned \u201cin the middle of one of the coldest winters we\u2019ve ever had.\u201d <\/p>\n

Roly Poly shows how cruel some people are. \u201cThey\u2019re God\u2019s creatures too, and I don\u2019t understand how people can turn their back on a suffering animal or a suffering child!\u201d Oliver declared.<\/p>\n

Today, Roly Poly is getting old and has health problems. But she \u201cstill loves life,\u201d Oliver said. Because she\u2019s at Gemini.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe cats that are here have a home and they have a home for life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The sun bathes his fur. He lies soaking it in, eyes shut, head resting on the floor and front leg stretched out. 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