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Cally Rieman

@callylovescats

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I bought a house with 9 cats living in the backyard. These are my stories💕
Mom to 6 owned + fostering + a flow of rescue beauties 🐈‍⬛🐈

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Please share 🙏🙏🙏
Update on the dumped boys 💔💔💔

Fitz is still out there 🥺🥺🥺
Now 4 have been rescued and seen by a vet thanks to @thegreatestshowonearth and @carrollgardenscatlady

Thank you to everyone who showed up for them.
But we lost one. 😢
The cat who got hit by a car didn’t make it.

That’s what happens when friendly cats who don’t know how to survive outside get dumped on the street.

5 boys are still out there. Still need fosters. Still need vet care.

One of these boys needs a $1,200 dental just to eat without pain.
That’s just one cat.
These boys never received a single day of healthcare in their entire lives.

We are halfway to our goal. But we still need your help.
Please share, donate and foster. 🐾

Contact @carrollgardenscatlady to foster.
Link in bio to donate 🙌

Because every cat deserves someone in their corner. 😢🐾
Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#Brooklyn #greyboys #catrescue #fosterneeded #somethingaboutmelvin

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Yes girl… make your bed! 😹😹😹
She does this every night…

Rita Bonita Applebaum🍎
She pulls every towel out of the basket. Rearranges. Adjusts. Pulls another one. Almost perfect. Not quite. One more.

These towels are just in my way, she says.
Stop putting your towels in my basket! 😂

She keeps going until it is perfect👌
What a silly girl she is. 😄

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#Rita #mixeddweller #sillycat #cathumor #somethingaboutmelvin

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Meet Kat! She sees the world a little differently🥺
She has cerebellar hypoplasia — so climbing? Not her thing.

Instead Kat built herself a little kingdom close to the ground. Her blanket. Her boxes. Her favorite rug. Everything exactly where she likes it.

Watching Kat taught me something. Feeling safe doesn’t look the same for every cat. And that’s okay. 🐾
What kind of dweller is your cat? 🌳🌿🏖️

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#Kat #wobbycat #CH #catbehavior #somethingaboutmelvin

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Oh, I almost forgot someone🙀
Peanut 🥜
When Peanut arrived he weighed one pound.
One.
The first thing he did?
Escape 😆
Twenty-four hours later we found him inside the tiniest basket imaginable.
That should have told us everything.

Turns out Peanut isn’t one kind of dweller. He’s all of them.
Bush. Tree. Beach.
Peanut doesn’t follow categories 🤔

Some cats spend their lives deciding where they feel safest.
Peanut decided...
Everywhere. 😄🐾
What kind of dweller is your cat? 🌳🌿🏖️
Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

Special thanks to his foster @katzen_sandwicz ❤️❤️❤️

#Peanut #alldweller #catbehavior #catpersonality #somethingaboutmelvin

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Rita Bonita Applebaum 🍎
Every theory has one cat determined to prove you wrong😹😹😹
Meet my sister Rita!

I’ve been studying her for three years.
3 years. Thousands of observations.
Still no explanation.

Some days she’s a tree dweller — asleep on top of the kitchen cabinets.

Other days she’s a bush dweller — pulling every towel out of the basket just so she can climb inside.

And whenever Moms opens a new case of cat food? Rita somehow squeezes herself into the smallest box available. 😂

Most cats settle into one strategy.
Rita changes hers depending on what Rita thinks the day requires.

I’ve stopped trying to figure her out.
Maybe that’s her strategy🤔

What kind of dweller is your cat? 🌳🌿🏖️
Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#Rita #mixeddweller #catbehavior #catpersonality #somethingaboutmelvin

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How did we wind up with 9 cats in our house?🤔
Allow me to explain. 😹
First there were 3 boys. Too many boys! So Moms brought in Smalls and Rita to even the playing field.

Then wobbly Kat was abandoned 1 block from our house. We took her in and well… she’s still here after 2.5 years. 🤷‍♂️

We rescued Arthur from our backyard in February 2025, sent him off to foster, but after 10 months he wasn’t doing very well. So we brought him back to socialize.

Our friend Big Boi from Jose’s Colony was declining so we offered to help him recover… and he’s made himself at home LOL 🫠

Then our backyard friend Boris needed a dental and stayed for over 2 weeks.

It all happened so fast.
Be careful… we multiply pretty quick. 😭😭😭

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

Big Boi rescued from @gowanuscats via @bookstorecats
Arthur adopted thru @savingbelladonna
Boris is cared for by @callylovescats and @catrescuersfilm
Smalls & Rita rescued by the great @tarascatsbkny @catsbkny who also supported Kat’s journey ❤️

That’s alotta cats!

#9cats #fosterfail #catlovers #somethingaboutmelvin #catsofinstagram

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Tonight a major storm is hitting NYC 🥺
And all I can think about is my friends still living outside. 😿

Boris. Henry. The colony. The cats in Jose’s colony @gowanuscats @bookstorecats
Every unowned cat on every street in this city.

Please send them some love and light tonight. 🐾

They are tough. They are resilient. But they could use your prayers right now🙏🙏🙏

Stay safe out there friends.

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#NYCstorm #streetcats #communitycat #somethingaboutmelvin #prayforthestreetcats

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What a stressful release this has been 🥺
At age 14 with a grade 3 heart murmur, it was a tough decision to put him under for a dental.

We did what we thought was right for Boris. With our neighbors @catrescuersfilm on our side, we have been watching him like hawks.

He was a bit disoriented the first few days and not very interested in food. And being so thin and fragile was a big concern.

Today is day 5 outside and his appetite has finally increased and he is looking more like himself again.

Now we try and build some winter weight before the winter is upon us.

We love you, Boris
Godspeed in your recovery.

Donate to all our friends outside via the GoFundMe in my bio🙏

Every cat deserves someone in their corner!
Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#Boris #colonycat #backyardcats #somethingaboutmelvin #everycat

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Apparently we can’t pay the vet in purrs 🤔
Humans insist on money.😹

So buy my merch….
Every purchase helps a friend in need.
Store Link in bio! 🐾

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#catmerch #shopforacause #savecats #somethingaboutmelvin #catsoﬁnstagram

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Making decisions for unowned cats is hard🥺

But we try to think of them as our own brothers and sisters.

As the great Jed Bartlett once said — decisions are made by those who show up.

So we showed up.

Not just for Boris and Crooked Tail. But for Henry, Arthur, Stanley and so many others.

We spent over $2K this month just showing up.

We don’t weigh our decisions on cost but on quality of life.

Because life in pain is no life at all.

If you want to show up for these community cats — link in bio to donate.

Because every cat deserves someone in their corner. 🐾

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#unownedcats #communitycat #colonycat #somethingaboutmelvin #everycat

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“Sh*t I fell for it again” said Boris as we finally trapped him after 3 months of trying🥺

One of the remaining 3 OGs, Boris was losing a lotta weight and not eating so well.

Now we know why.

He had a mouth full of rotten teeth.

Putting a 14 year old with a grade 3 heart murmur through a dental is awfully scary. But he was in pain.

And what kind of life is that?

9 teeth pulled, 2 crown amputations and 5 root extractions later — Boris will heal here for 10 days before we let him back outside.

And boy is he mad at Moms right now. 🥺

Maybe he will forgive her when he starts feeling better.

I know I did.❤️✌️

Boris’s dental was $1,678. We don’t weigh our decisions on cost but on quality of life.

Because life in pain is no life at all.

If you want to show up for Boris and his friends — link in bio to donate. Every dollar goes directly to vet care. 🐾

Every cat deserves someone in their corner.

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin😎

#Boris #colonycat #backyardcats #somethingaboutmelvin #catsoﬁnstagram

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It took five and a half years to build her trust🥺
All for moments like this. 🐾

Crooked Tail was losing weight and had periods of labored breathing. We knew it was time to act.

From the most skittish of my backyard family to the bravest.

We trapped her gently.
We transferred her quietly.

She was calm in the crate, had an unsedated vet visit — her first in 10 years — and did not miss a beat when we let her back outside.

Crooked Tail had a URI and was diagnosed as hyperthyroid. So we are working hard to get her meds twice a day consistently to see if it helps.

Caring for colony cats, even when they are in your backyard, is a lot of work.

But every cat deserves someone in their corner. 🐾
Please help me help my friends by donating to my GoFundMe - link in bio
Cared for by @callylovescats @helenforpeace @catrescuersfilm

Love, peace & ear grease,
Melvin ❤️✌️😎

#CrookedTail #colonycat #backyardcats #somethingaboutmelvin #catsofinstagram

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